The Worcester Railers faced off against the Maine Mariners for the second night in a row at the DCU Center and has been the issue all season they just couldn’t seem to get out of their own way in a 4-3 loss that despite being down by three goals at one point could have been a winnable game.
Winning teams find ways to win, and losing teams find ways to lose, and no matter how rose-colored your glasses are it should be obvious by this point in the season the Railers are on the losing end of that spectrum. The North Division has three great teams, a very good one, and three terrible squads. Worcester has six out of a possible 14 points against the other two terrible teams, Maine and Reading. Against the Railers, Maine and Reading have nine of a possible 14. Even when other teams lose, they generate more points than Worcester does. In overtime and shootout losses this season the Railers have managed just one point. Maine and Reading have generated six points in games they went home losers.
The Railers’ minus-15 first-period goal differential is the worst in the ECHL and it’s one huge problem that head coach Bob Deraney and associate head coach Nick Tuzzolino need to overcome, and they need to do that quickly lest they find themselves in a hole too deep to dig out of.
Less than halfway through the opening frame Saturday night Worcester was down 2-0 and bad puck management was the cause of both strikes against them. On Owen Pederson’s goal at 7:37 Worcester failed to clear the puck twice and then after a turnover it was in the Railers’ net behind Michael Bullion. Justin Bean’s goal at 9:23 came after an icing call on Kolby Johnson when there was no reason for him not to take one more stride toward the red line to dump the puck into the Maine zone.
It wasn’t all bad news in the period as Griffin Loughran got his team within one with 18.3 seconds left in the frame. It was Loughran’s second clean breakaway of the game, and after telegraphing his first attempt he just fired this one past Ryan Bischel to make it 2-1, with the assist going to Connor Welsh.
In that entire play, can you see who reacted quickest? That’s probably not a fair question, so perhaps it should be worded “Can you hear who reacted quickest?” as Railers DJ/Soundman extraordinaire Ryan McConville hit that goal horn faster than the goal judge could turn on the red light, and by a significant margin.
Worcester would gain no momentum from that goal as Maine would score twice in the middle stanza to take a 4-1 lead. Jimmy Lambert would make it 3-1 when he roofed a backhander over Bullion when the Railers defense lost track of the former Railers forward. Those around this writer’s perch could hear Lambert calling for the puck, so it makes one wonder what the Worcester defense was listening to. Matthew Philip’s breakaway goal, after some more Railers’ poor puck management in the Maine zone, made it 4-1 at 17:54.
With Worcester playing uninspired hockey in the third it looked like that was probably going to be it, and when Welsh brainlessly slashed the stick out of Wyllum Deveaux’s hands that certainly didn’t look like a golden opportunity for the Railers to grab another goal.
Enter Worcester’s lone offensive weapon, Anthony Repaci.
Matt DeMelis had the lone assist on the play.
Down 4-2 and with nothing to lose Deraney pulled Bullion for an extra attacker very early, and after some good pressure by the Railers Anthony Callin grabbed his first goal of the season to make it 4-3. Riley Piercey and Repaci had the assists at 18:29.
And then one of Worcester’s other biggest weaknesses struck. With time winding down and an extra attacker on the ice again the Railers kept passing the puck along the permitter and did not force the issue. Officially the ECHL lists just a single shot for the Railers over the final 91 seconds, and by this writer’s count, they had just two additional shot attempts. Yes, you read that correctly, playing six on five for over a minute the Railers, needing a goal to tie it, managed just three shot attempts.
As we opened the post, winning teams find ways to win, and losing teams find ways to lose. And right now, the Railers don’t need to look very hard to see the reasons they lose.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were JD Dudek (IR/upper body), Christian Krygier (bereavement), Jack Randl (unknown injury), and Brenden Rons (14-day IR/unknown). John Muse was the backup goaltender. The ECHL transactions Saturday list Worcester as claiming forward William Provost off waivers from Trois-Rivieres. Provost has 11 goals in 69 career ECHL games, so he should fit right into the Railers lineup.
As was expected, there was a scoring change on Anthony Repaci’s record-breaking goal Wednesday night in Adirondack that was originally scored as unassisted. Helpers have been added to Griffin Loughran and Cam McDonald, so that goal now reads “Repaci, (15) (Loughran, McDonald), 1:23”.
There are currently two ECHL teams that have yet to score an empty net goal this season, the Cincinnati Cyclones and the Railers. For the Railers, this is now the longest by calendar date into a season that they’ve gone without scoring an empty netter, the previous worst being December 7, 2018, with Barry Almeida’s empty-net goal in Worcester’s 3-1 win at Brampton. By pure recollection, it’s likely a city record for futility too. The only real chance it wouldn’t be was if the IceCats failed to score one early in their inaugural season. Jim Nesich had what looks to be the first empty-net goal in Worcester pro hockey history that season on December 3rd in a 5-3 win at Adirondack. So, unless someone digs up a season where it was later than December 7th, the Railers now hold this dubious mark.
For the first time in ECHL history, the league used a female referee as Sydney Harris took to the ice in Utah for the Grizzlies match-up against the Kansas City Mavericks Friday night. Harris, who has already worked games in both the IIHF and the PWHL, worked the game with veteran ECHL referee Trevor Wohlford. A former collegiate defender from Elmira College who captained the Soaring Eagles for the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons, Harris worked games at the Nashville Predators Rookie Showcase this past summer.
Upon further review, we said yesterday the Railers had already tied their franchise mark for overtime wins in a season with five, but that’s not the case as apparently this writer can’t count to six, which is how many they had in the 2022-23 season.
Because many asked at the DCU Center Saturday night, the pun in Friday’s game posting was using “Luce salute”. Loose Salute was the name of former Monkees’ guitarist and songwriter Michael Nesmith’s second album with Michael Nesmith & The First National Band, which charted a single called Silver Moon. Yes, a bit obscure, and it was really included for two people. They know who they are.
The three stars of the game were:
1. MNE – 23 Jimmy Lambert
2. WOR – 81 Anthony Repaci
3. MNE – 26 Justin Bean
The 210Sports Player of the Game was Anthony Callin.
Even Strength Lines
Repaci / Kaplan / Loughran
Kopperud / Callin / Jacobs
Piercey / Donhauser / Nazzarett
Johnson / DeMelis / Hatten
Luce / Welsh
McDonald / Klee
Rajaniemi / Dickinson
Our affiliates last night
NY Islanders 4, Carolina 3
Providence 6, Bridgeport 3
In the ECHL’s North Division last night
Trois-Rivieres 6, Idaho 3
Wheeling 3, Cincinnati 0
Adirondack 3, Reading 2 OT
BOX SCORE
Maine 2 2 0 – 4
Worcester 1 0 2 – 3
1st Period-1, Maine, Pederson 2 (Bean, Hudson), 7:37. 2, Maine, Bean 2 (Lambert, Vierling), 9:23. 3, Worcester, Loughran 4 (Welsh), 19:41. Penalties-Piercey Wor (unsportsmanlike conduct), 14:19.
2nd Period-4, Maine, Lambert 5 (Vierling, Berger), 6:39. 5, Maine, Philip 1 (Hudson), 17:54. Penalties-Vierling Mne (tripping), 0:21; Sheehy Mne (hooking), 8:52; Johnson Wor (high-sticking), 14:45.
3rd Period-6, Worcester, Repaci 16 (DeMelis), 11:07 (SH). 7, Worcester, Callin 1 (Piercey, Repaci), 18:29. Penalties-Underwood Mne (roughing), 2:35; Zieky Mne (roughing), 2:35; Donhauser Wor (roughing), 2:35; Welsh Wor (slashing), 9:49.
Shots on Goal-Maine 15-13-8-36. Worcester 9-8-10-27.
Power Play Opportunities-Maine 0 / 3; Worcester 0 / 3.
Goalies-Maine, Bischel 5-3-0-0 (27 shots-24 saves). Worcester, Bullion 4-6-0-0 (36 shots-32 saves).
A-2,148
Referees-Rocco Stachowiak (28).
Linesmen-Davids Rozitis (90), Cody Sullivan (82).
—
Do you have something you loved (or hated) about the post? Head on over to the 210Sports Facebook page and leave a comment. You could comment on this post too, but fair warning, the spam filter catches lots of stuff it shouldn’t, and it might be weeks before we see your comment. While you’re there, please give the page a like and a follow.
You can also follow along and comment on the following sites:
Twitter/X (210Darryl), Twitter/X (210Sports), Bluesky, and Mastodon.
-30-
210Sports 
hopefully they will not be eaten by the abyss!