The Worcester Railers started their post-holiday schedule Friday night in Reading, Pennsylvania in a match-up at Santander Arena against the Royals, and for the third time in four meetings this season, the Railers came out on the wrong side of a 2-1 final.
How many different ways can “this team doesn’t have enough players who can put the puck in the net” be said? Because this writer has run out of ways to say it. Their 2.69 goals per game, as terrible as that is, somehow now ranks 18th in the ECHL but certainly isn’t good enough to win consistently. They have 14 games remaining this season against top 5 defenses, so both those numbers will likely be trending in the wrong direction.
And suddenly we now have a defensive issue. After Friday’s loss where they only gave up two goals, Worcester’s defense is giving up 3.55 goals per game, 26th out of 29 teams. What’s not helping there is their penalty kill still ranks 28th but now they’ve started taking multiple dumb penalties per game.
Just like the past few seasons, the Railers are headed for another train wreck. And also like the past few seasons, this one is clearly visible. So why can’t the decision makers in hockey ops see it?
For the game Friday, Reading got two second period goals from Shane Sellar, the first over the left shoulder of Worcester goaltender Michael Bullion, the second over the right.
Anthony Repaci, literally the only Railers player who can consistently score, made it a 2-1 game a minute into the third period.
Boullion would head to the bench with three minutes to go in the game and Worcester would have six shots with the extra attacker while twice dodging empty net opportunities, but they could not grab the equalizer despite Repaci playing a shift of 2:59 before being called for a meaningless tripping penalty with three seconds to go.
Anthony Callin’s 11 shots tie the Railers franchise mark for shot in a road game. Nic Pierog also had 11 shots in South Carolina on February 23, 2020.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Matt DeMelis (14-day IR/unknown), Kolby Johnson, Christian Krygier (unavailable/personal), and John Muse. Joey Spagnoli, who was signed as an EBUG earlier in the day, was the backup goaltender.
We didn’t have an actual game story for last Sunday, however the post about the bad officiating was apparently seen by more than a few Mariners fans with reading comprehension issues, so this is our first opportunity to mention that the 46 penalty minutes for the Railers in the game are a new home franchise record. Griffin Luce’s 20 PIM is also a new home single-game record for the franchise.
There are two major hockey tournaments running right now, with the IIHF World Junior Championships taking place in Gothenburg, Sweden. With those players being 18 and under there’s obviously no playing connections between them and Worcester, but that not the case with the second tournament as the 2024 Spengler Cup boasts four Worcester pro hockey alumni. The Straubing Tigers have two former WorSharks playing, with Justin Braun (#61) and Mike Connolly (#22). Representing Team Canada are former Railers goaltender Colten Ellis (#33) and former WorSharks defender Matt Irwin (#52), with Irwin wearing an Alternate Captain’s “A” for some games. The Spengler Cup runs from December 26 to the 31st.
Is there an ECHL arena with worse camera angles than Santander Arena? They don’t have a camera at center ice and instead have cameras at both ends about equal to the face-off circles. On top of that their camera operators don’t have any idea how to center the action and make such quick pans as to make viewers get motion sickness.
The three stars of the game were
1. REA – 16 Shane Sellar
2. REA – 17 Todd Skirving
3. WOR – 81 Anthony Repaci
The 210Sports Player of the Game was no one.
Even Strength Lines
Repaci / Kaplan / Loughran
Piercey / Callin / Kopperud
Donhauser / Dudek / Boudens
Ginnell / Hatten / Mahshie
Welsh / Luce
Rons / Klee
Rajaniemi / Dickinson
Our affiliates last night
Providence 4, Bridgeport 1
In the ECHL’s North Division last night
Savannah 5, Norfolk 3
Trois-Rivieres 6, Adirondack 2
Wheeling 3, Cincinnati 2
BOX SCORE
Worcester 0 0 1 – 1
Reading 0 2 0 – 2
1st Period- No Scoring.Penalties-No Penalties
2nd Period-1, Reading, Sellar 3 (Johnson, Skirving), 0:12. 2, Reading, Sellar 4 (Cassaro, Skirving), 8:17. Penalties-Boudens Wor (delay of game – faceoff infraction), 13:50; Dickinson Wor (roughing), 13:50; Leibold Rea (interference), 16:44; Master Rea (roughing), 19:32.
3rd Period-3, Worcester, Repaci 19 (Welsh, Piercey), 1:02 (PP). Penalties-Boudens Wor (fighting – major), 6:59; Valerian Rea (fighting – major), 6:59; Repaci Wor (tripping), 19:57.
Shots on Goal-Worcester 13-6-13-32. Reading 9-15-7-31.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 1 / 2; Reading 0 / 3.
Goalies-Worcester, Bullion 4-9-0-1 (31 shots-29 saves). Reading, Purpura 4-2-0-0 (32 shots-31 saves).
A-3,583
Referees-JR Stragar (2), Chris Conway (34).
Linesmen-Sean Perry (92), Judson Ritter (70).
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