The Worcester Railers took on the Maine Mariners Wednesday night at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland and after an embarrassingly bad first period couldn’t recover from the four-goal deficit and lost 5-2.
Seeing as the Railers took the first period off in Maine, so shall this writer, meaning there will be no looking up the stats to see if their 21-1 shots disadvantage was the worst ever in either franchise or Worcester pro hockey history. The Railers have given up four goals in a period before, but we won’t be looking up to see if that’s the most they’ve ever given up in a period, nor what the city record might be.
Of course, the biggest difference between the Railers and me taking the first period off is I’m not throwing away two potential points against a division rival.
This writer had already tweeted that the single shot taken by the Railers in the first period sets a franchise record for the fewest shots in a road first period and ties the record for the fewest shots in any first period. It also ties the franchise record for the fewest shots taken in any period. For a short while the official scorers in Maine changed it to two shots for Worcester, but when I awoke this morning, it was back to one. Yay, they set a record.
Despite giving up four goals in the period netminder Henrik Tikkanen was pretty darn good in the frame. I’m sure some will argue he should have stopped one of the four he let in. Feel free, but that would require more effort than the Railers showed over that opening twenty minutes.
In other words, don’t waste your time.
In the second period, Lincoln Hatten scored his first ECHL goal to get Worcester on the board. One of the very few reasons there’s even a post for the game is so Hatten’s achievement will be mentioned somewhere.
At some point after that the Mariners scored again, and even though we’re working the last two periods of the game it’s not worth the effort to see when that happened.
As time was winding down Cole Donhuaser scored his first goal as a Railer, and a shorthanded one to boot. Worthy of a post on its own? Probably not, but as we’re here anyway we may as well show the highlight.
The Railers return to action Saturday night against Trois-Rivières, where hopefully they’ll play a hard 60 minutes of hockey while wearing “Worcester 6” jerseys to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Worcester Cold Storage fire.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Cole Crowder (14-day IR/unknown), JD Dudek (IR/upper body), Colin Jacobs, John Muse, and Matias Rajaniemi (3-day IR/unknown). Michael Bullion was the backup goaltender.
I had some stuff here, but pretty much no one is going to make it this far down the post, so we’ll save these entries for another game.
The three stars of the game were:
1. MNE – 41 Evan Vierling
2. MNE – 15 Bennett Stockdale
3. MNE – 21 Drew Bavaro
The 210Sports Player of the Game was Henrik Tikkanen.
Even Strength Lines
Randl / Kaplan / Repaci
Piercey / Callin / Loughran
Kopperud / DeMelis / Donhauser
Johnson / Bakanov / Hatten
Luce / Welsh
Rons / Klee
Verrier / Dickinson
Our affiliates last night
No games scheduled
In the ECHL’s North Division last night
Norfolk 5, Reading 2
Jacksonville 5, Adirondack 0
BOX SCORE
Worcester 0 1 1 – 2
Maine 4 0 1 – 5
1st Period-1, Maine, Bavaro 1 (Lambert, Vierling), 6:30 (PP). 2, Maine, Guay 5 (Lambert, Kalmikov), 9:02. 3, Maine, Stockdale 1 (Berger, Willets), 10:13. 4, Maine, Deveaux 4 (Sarlo, Vierling), 16:23. Penalties-Kaplan Wor (hooking), 4:43.
2nd Period-5, Worcester, Hatten 1 (Donhauser, Dickinson), 3:35. Penalties-Kalmikov Mne (slashing), 1:24; Stockdale Mne (delay of game), 4:36; Guay Mne (tripping), 19:41.
3rd Period-6, Maine, Vierling 3 (Vidmar, Lambert), 16:40 (PP). 7, Worcester, Donhauser 1 19:29 (SH). Penalties-Loughran Wor (diving/embellishment), 1:29; Underwood Mne (high-sticking), 1:29; Kopperud Wor (high-sticking – double), 15:02; Callin Wor (cross-checking), 19:07.
Shots on Goal-Worcester 1-17-11-29. Maine 21-6-11-38.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 0 / 3; Maine 2 / 4.
Goalies-Worcester, Tikkanen 1-4-0-0 (38 shots-33 saves). Maine, Bischel 4-2-0-0 (29 shots-27 saves).
A-2,440
Referees-Casey Terreri (14), Austin Rook (11).
Linesmen-Jack McQuesten (53), Matthew Heinen (93).
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