The Worcester Railers faced off against the South Carolina Stingrays Friday night at the DCU Center, and it was all Stingrays as they scored four goals against each of Michael Bullion and Henrik Tikkanen and overwhelmed the Railers 8-1.
The eight goals allowed is the most since Worcester’s 9-3 loss to Newfoundland on March 30, 2024. That was the last game the Growlers would ever play. The seven-goal loss is the worst for the Railers since losing 7-0 in Adirondack on December 23, 2022.
When asked postgame about his team’s performance on the ice Friday night, Railers head coach Bob Deraney was very direct.
OK, so he didn’t really say that. And he probably wouldn’t have said that if he were actually asked. But that’s pretty much the entirety of what can be taken away from the game. Sometimes your team is so bad that all you can do is forget what happened and move on to the next game.
There was one highlight for Worcester as Jordan Kaplan scored his first goal in a Railers jersey in 681 days.
While it was mostly overshadowed by how poorly Worcester was playing, and it was absolutely not the cause of them being blown out of the building, ECHL referee Tyler Hascall may have called one of the worst games ever by an on-ice official in Worcester’s pro hockey history. It was so bad that were the game closer some might be openly questioning his impartiality.
Deraney’s thoughts on the officiating?
Yes, of course he wasn’t asked, and he wouldn’t have answered anyway. Bob has too much class for that.
And as an aside, if you thought finding a picture of former Railers head coach Jordan Smotherman not smiling was hard, that was nothing compared to trying to find a suitable one of Deraney. Railers Booster Club president Rich Lundin calls Deraney “the Railers’ biggest cheerleader”.
Although I suspect Coach Bob didn’t pick up any pom poms after Friday night’s debacle.
Railers made a mad dash after the game to Quebec, where they’ll play two against the Lions this weekend.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Cole Crowder (3-day IR/unknown), JD Dudek (IR/upper body), Lincoln Hatten, John Muse, and Matias Rajaniemi. Henrick Tikkanen began the game as the backup goaltender and entered the game 13 seconds into the middle period. On Thursday it was announced that defenseman Cam McDonald was recalled to Bridgeport, and Friday morning the NY Islanders reassigned Tikkanen to Worcester.
On Tuesday the ECHL named Railers forward Anthony Repaci as their “Player of the Week”. He is just the third Railers player to win the award, with Blade Jenkins and Ashton Calder each winning late last season. Repaci also won the “Railers Player of the Week” fan vote on the fans’“Hockey.hockey,hockey” group, but seeing as he was the only candidate nominated that was a foregone conclusion. One poster tried his best to say that the goaltenders should have gotten some consideration, but the fact that Repaci won the league award says all that needs to be said about that.
Taking care of some notes from last week, on Monday the ECHL fined Norfolk’s Carson Golder under Rule #28 – Supplementary Discipline as a result of his minor penalty for tripping at 14:59 of the second period in Sunday’s game. A quick check of the video shows that Golder clearly slew-footed Griffin Loughran. The diminutive forward jumped right back up no worse for wear, which is likely why there was no suspension. In a suspension that impacts the Railers, Trois-Rivieres’ Morgan Adams-Moisan was suspended for two games for a postgame unpenalized cross-checking infraction at 20:00 of the third period Saturday in Wheeling. The second game of his suspension will be their Saturday contest.
In scoring changes from last week, in Sunday’s overtime victory over Norfolk, the scoring on Ryan Verrier’s first-period goal has been totally changed, and it now reads “1. WOR Verrier, (1) (Loughran, Bakanov), 7:30”. Originally Matt DeMelis and Conor Welsh had helpers on the play. Also, add an assist to Riley Piercey on Griffin Loughran’s goal that gave the Railers a 2-1 lead.
There will also be some scoring changes for Friday’s game, or maybe more correctly there should be some, as the penalty section is a mess and doesn’t accurately match what was called in the ice. The most glaring errors are Griffin Loughran being shown with 6 PIM despite being listed for just a slashing minor. He did serve another team penalty, but that doesn’t count in his total, and Kolby Johnson is listed as getting into a fight while he was supposedly serving a double minor. In any case, Johnson’s current PIM total of 7 is obviously incorrect.
With this week being the first time Worcester and South Carolina have played each other we’ll look at some roster and area connections between the clubs. For the Stingrays, goaltender Mitchell Gibson spent four years at Harvard University. For the defenders, Jon McDonald played five seasons at UMass-Lowell, captaining the team in 2022-23, and Connor Moore played four seasons at Boston College. Forward Jeremy Davidson one year at UMass-Amherst before heading to the USHL. There are no Railers with ties to South Carolina.
Former Worcester Sharks defenseman Matt Irwin has called it a career Thursday after 11 seasons in the NHL. After two seasons at UMass-Amherst Irwin debuted for the WorSharks in April of 2010, beginning a 775-game pro career. In his prime Irwin was a top-tier AHL defender that played solidly as a mid-level NHL defenseman and played in the 2012 AHL All-Star Game in Atlantic City, N.J. Entering this current season Irwin’s 88 points for the WorSharks ranks fourth all-time in Worcester pro hockey history for pure defensemen.
The three stars of the game were:
1. SC – 18 Kyler Kupka
2. SC – 6 Jayden Lee
3. SC – 22 Micah Miller
The 210Sports Player of the Game was no one.
Even Strength Lines
Piercey / Kopperud / Loughran
Randl / Kaplan / Repaci
DeMelis / Callin / Donhauser
Johnson / Jacobs / Bakanov
Luce / Welsh
Verrier / Klee
Rons / Dickinson
Our affiliates last night
Bridgeport 6, Hershey 1
In the ECHL’s North Division last night
Wheeling 2, Indy 1 SO
Toldeo 5, Norfolk 1
Trois-Rivieres 4, Maine 1
Adirondack 3, Reading 1
BOX SCORE
South Carolina 3 2 3 – 8
Worcester 1 0 0 – 1
1st Period-1, South Carolina, Suzdalev 2 (McDonald, Cruikshank), 6:19. 2, South Carolina, Miller 5 (Lee, Cruikshank), 16:18 (PP). 3, Worcester, Kaplan 1 (Repaci, Luce), 17:21. 4, South Carolina, Moore 3 (Combs, Thompson), 19:25. Penalties-Welsh Wor (delay of game), 15:01.
2nd Period-5, South Carolina, Kupka 5 (Combs), 0:13. 6, South Carolina, Cruikshank 5 (Miller, Lee), 13:14 (PP). Penalties-Klee Wor (holding), 1:07; Engelbert Sc (roughing), 8:08; Jacobs Wor (roughing), 8:08; Loughran Wor (slashing), 13:09; Moore Sc (tripping), 14:10; served by Loughran Wor (bench – too many men), 15:34; Johnson Wor (roughing), 20:00.
3rd Period-7, South Carolina, Engelbert 3 (Lee, Eisele), 0:50 (PP). 8, South Carolina, Kupka 6 (Moore, Davidson), 10:34. 9, South Carolina, Nachbaur 1 (Hawerchuk, Combs), 13:25 (PP). Penalties-Combs Sc (roughing), 7:18; Kupka Sc (roughing), 7:18; Jacobs Wor (roughing), 7:18; Loughran Wor (double – roughing), 7:18; Perrott Sc (fighting – major), 9:34; Johnson Wor (fighting – major), 9:34; Randl Wor (high-sticking), 12:19.
Shots on Goal-South Carolina 19-6-16-41. Worcester 9-3-5-17.
Power Play Opportunities-South Carolina 4 / 7; Worcester 0 / 1.
Goalies-South Carolina, Eisele 4-0-1-0 (17 shots-16 saves). Worcester, Bullion 3-3-0-0 (20 shots-16 saves); Tikkanen 1-2-0-0 (21 shots-17 saves).
A-3,050
Referees-Tyler Hascall (8).
Linesmen-Matthew Heinen (93), Jack McQuesten (53).
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