The Worcester Railers headed north this week to Trois-Rivieres to take on the Lions Friday night at Colisée Vidéotron where the Railers got multiple point nights from rookies Matthew Kopperud and Cam McDonald to defeat their North Division rivals 4-3 in overtime to record their first win of the 2024-25 season. Michael Bullion made 23 saves in the victory.
It was Trois-Rivieres that would strike first at 8:03 of the opening frame when the Worcester defenders lost track of Lions forward Anthony Beauchamp, and his backhand attempt after a centering feed from Xavier Cormier had almost all 24 square feet to shoot at.
Sometimes when the offense is struggling a bit, as the Railers were last weekend against Reading, all it takes is a lucky bounce to get everything going in the right direction. The recipient of that lucky bounce was defenseman Giffin Luce as his shot pinballed off a Lions player and past Trois-Rivieres netminder Hunter Jones.
Worcester started the second period on the power play, and after going 0-10 over the first seven periods of the regular season on the man advantage Mason Klee was able to connect for the Railers’ first power play goal of the campaign 32 seconds into the period.
At about the five-minute mark of the period, the first of two Railers’ potential goals was waved off by referee Emile Charron, taking the place of the previously announced Alex Normandin. After watching the video, it turns out referee Charron was correct in waving off the goal as Justin Gill crosschecked defenseman Jacob Perreault into Jones, preventing the goaltender from making the save. Where referee Charron failed was he didn’t have the reason why he disallowed the goal announced, which is supposed to be a requirement. One should also question why a crosschecking minor wasn’t called on Gill.
With a minute or so left in the period a second Railers potential goal was waved off by referee Charron, and this one he got completely wrong. With Kopperud breaking down the right-wing side Jack Randl headed to the Lions’ net, where he was interfered with by Trois-Rivieres’ defender Jakov Novak. Randl was knocked to the ice and slid into Jones, who fell. Kopperud’s subsequent shot lit the lamp but referee Charron, who was completely out of position on the play, ruled it wasn’t a goal. And again, there was no announcement as to why.
Five minutes into the third Randl was able to get one for Worcester that counted.
The Lions would go on to score the next two to tie it, with Brycen Martin’s power play goal making it 3-2 at 10:15 and Cormier scoring at 12:21 to knot the score 3-3.
It stayed that way until there was just 31 seconds left in the extra session when Kopperud sent the Lions fans home unhappy.
After an off day for travel, Worcester heads to Portland, Maine for a Sunday matchup against the Mariners, 3pm puck drop.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Andrei Bakanov, Cole Crowder, Ryan Dickinson (IR/unknown), Griffin Loughran (IR/unknown), and John Muse. Henrik Tikkanen was the backup goaltender. Griffin Luce returned from his PTO with the Hartford Wolf Pack after just one game, and goaltender Tikkanen was assigned to Worcester by the New York Islanders. This writer’s attempt to use a spreadsheet to keep track of roster spots has already failed just one week into the season, so back to the drawing board for better ideas on how to do that.
The Railers’ injured list may unfortunately be growing as three forwards, JD Dudek, Anthony Callin, and Matt DeMelis were all unavailable by the time Matthew Kopperud scored the game-winner. Dudek took a first-period hit, which this writer missed because he joined the game in progress, Callin was injured in the third after throwing a check on Vincent Sevigny behind the Trois-Rivieres net when their legs got tangled, and DeMelis got crunched with an open-ice hit by Jakov Novak in overtime. It appeared on the video that Callin attempted to skate it off during a media time-out, but he didn’t seem to play a shift afterward. It also looked like Novak’s hit on DeMelis was high and dirty, and hopefully, the Railers will be sending the video on to the ECHL.
Railers general manager Nick Tuzzolino made his first in-season transactions this week, releasing Austin Heidemann and signing forward Lincoln Hatten. Heidemann didn’t score in his lone appearance for Worcester this season and had one goal in seven games last season. He was subsequently claimed off waivers by the Wichita Thunder. Are these two transactions going to be the difference makers in the long run? No, of course, they won’t be. But it sets the tone that if you’re given an opportunity and don’t produce, the team is going to move on from you. That’s been missing from this organization over the years.
As it’s the first time this season Trois-Rivières and Worcester match up we’ll take a look at some roster and area connections. Lions forward Jakov Novak spent three seasons with the Bentley University Falcons and two seasons at Northeastern University, where he was an alternate captain for the Huskies in the 2022-23 season. For the Railers, Connor Welsh spent 74 games over two seasons with Trois-Rivières, going 3-19-22.
Looking back at last Saturday’s 2-1 Worcester loss to Reading, the Railers’ weekly media release mentioned the 16 shots the team allowed was a franchise low for a game. Oddly enough, that’s not the fewest shots they have ever surrendered in regulation. Worcester allowed only 15 shots in regulation against Greenville on November 18, 2022, but that game went to overtime where the Swamp Rabbits grabbed two more shots to make 17 for the game. The Railers won that game 3-2 on an overtime power play goal by Collin Adams with 20 seconds left in the extra session.
Two seasons ago we had a weekly poll on who the fan’s choice for Railers “Player of the Week” was, and last season we forgot we were doing that until half the season played, so we didn’t bother. This season this writer made a note to make sure it was started again, only to have an opening weekend where no one player stood out enough to be given such a prestigious honor. A minion who shall remain nameless, although it wouldn’t take Sherlock Holmes to figure out who it was, mentioned to me after my tweet that the Railers had more turnovers than most bakeries and that we should have a poll on what everyone’s favorite turnover flavor was. Like the “Player of the Week” polls tend to be, this poll was also a runaway with apple claiming 77% of the vote as of Friday morning. Strawberry (10%) was a distant second, followed by cherry (6%), blueberry (4%), and lemon (3%). As you can see, nothing but hard-hitting journalism here at 210Sports. You can vote in next week’s poll by joining the “Hockey,Hockey,Hockey, Woooo. A Worcester Railers Fan Page…” Facebook group.
The three stars of the game were:
1. WOR – 18 Matthew Kopperud
2. TR – 18 Xavier Cormier
3. WOR – 27 Cam McDonald
The 210Sports Player of the Game was Lincoln Hatten.
Even Strength Lines
Repaci / Callin / Donhauser
Randl / Gill / Jacobs
Kopperud / Kaplan / Dudek
Piercey / DeMelis / Hatten
Luce / Welsh
McDonald / Klee
Rajaniemi / Verrier
Our affiliates last night
NY Islanders 4, New Jersey 3 OT
Charlotte 8, Bridgeport 2
In the ECHL’s North Division last night
Norfolk 6, Maine 3
BOX SCORE
Worcester 1 1 1 1 – 4
Trois-Rivières 1 0 2 0 – 3
1st Period-1, Trois-Rivières, Beauchamp 1 (Cormier, Paquette), 8:03. 2, Worcester, Luce 1 (Hatten, Piercey), 10:39. Penalties-Matthews Tr (tripping), 2:23; Nijhoff Tr (cross-checking), 13:46; Novak Tr (roughing), 16:55; Perreault Tr (delay of game), 19:58.
2nd Period-3, Worcester, Klee 1 (Repaci, McDonald), 0:32 (PP). Penalties-No Penalties
3rd Period-4, Worcester, Randl 1 (Kopperud, McDonald), 5:01. 5, Trois-Rivières, Martin 1 (Nijhoff, Mianscum), 10:15 (PP). 6, Trois-Rivières, Cormier 1 (Perreault), 12:21. Penalties-Sévigny Tr (cross-checking), 6:29; Randl Wor (hooking), 8:44.
1st OT Period-7, Worcester, Kopperud 1 (Welsh, Donhauser), 6:29. Penalties-No Penalties
Shots on Goal-Worcester 14-8-10-4-36. Trois-Rivières 7-4-10-5-26.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 1 / 5; Trois-Rivières 1 / 1.
Goalies-Worcester, Bullion 1-1-0-0 (26 shots-23 saves). Trois-Rivières, Jones 0-0-1-0 (36 shots-32 saves).
A-2,441
Referees-Emile Charron (43).
Linesmen-Antoine Bujold-Roux (72), Shawn Oliver (90).
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