The Worcester Railers schedule said that their All-Star break ended at 7:15 pm Friday night, but the team apparently decided to take a little extra time off before their match-up against the Maine Mariners at Cross Insurance Arena and their ECHL North Division rivals took full advantage of the still vacationing Railers to defeat Worcester 4-2 and climb within five points of the Railers in the divisional playoff standings with three games in hand.
The game’s first shot came 1:07 into the contest, and we know this because it went into Worcester’s net for a 1-0 Maine lead. Railers defender Mason Klee completely lost track of where Mariners forward Jacob Hudson was, and as it turns out he was right behind Klee. Brooklyn Kalmikov’s pass found Hudson all alone against Worcester netminder Michael Bullion, and the struggling netminder’s alligator arms didn’t even wave at the puck as it went by.
The Railers woke up enough to keep it 1-0 through nearly the midpoint of the second period when Tristan Thompson connected on the power play to make it 2-0 at 8:59. Referee Dylan Sater, who had correctly disallowed an earlier Worcester goal for goaltender interference, may have gotten his review on Thompson’s goal wrong. During the broadcast after the goal was counted Railers play by play man Tim Foley indicated the play wasn’t called goaltender interference because the puck had passed Bullion before Sebastian Vidmar crashed into him. It would be great to see the overhead video because the angle shown on FloHockey sure makes that assumption look incorrect.
Owen Pederson made it 3-0 Maine at 5:46 of the third when a Worcester turnover resulted in an odd-man rush for Maine and Pederson took it all the way and went low glove side on Bullion.
A handful of seconds later Griffin Luce put Lincoln Hatten’s face-off win into the Mariners net to make it 3-1 Maine.
Maine regained their three-goal lead at 10:36 when the Mariners managed to outnumber Worcester in front of Bullion and Nick Jermain banged home the rebound of Christian Sarlo’s shot.
Jordan Kaplan gave the Railers a tiny bit of hope at 14:40 with a nice wraparound goal, assisted by Cole Donhauser and Connor Welsh.
But that would be as close as the Railers would get as they failed to register a shot on goal over the final 2:30 of the game and they couldn’t even manage to get Bullion off for an extra attacker.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Matthew Boudens (IR/upper body) and Severi Savijoki. Hugo Ollas was the backup goaltender.
On Wednesday Railers General Manager Nick Tuzzolino acquired forward Mark Cheremeta from Orlando for the ever-popular “future considerations”. Cheremeta is a rookie playing on his third ECHL team this season and has a goal and two assists in 18 games with Kalamazoo and the Solar Bears. He went 11-35-46 in 112 NCAA games with Ohio State and Sacred Heart. On Thursday Tuzzolino signed Severi Savijoki from the SPHL’s Quad City Storm. The 23-year-old Savijoki previously played pro hockey in Finland.
As we noted last weekend there’s no ECHL All-Star game this season because the league decided to go on the cheap and hold the “Warrior/ECHL Hockey Heritage Classic”. They did decide to name All-Star teams, mostly as a marketing tool, and it’s a shock to no one that Anthony Repaci and Connor Welsh were named to the squad. And, of course, if one were interested you can bid on the All-Star jerseys that the players have never worn and will likely never see in person unless a fan buys one and brings it to them to be autographed at one point.
In scoring a change from last week, as was expected the assist credited to Anthony Callin on Matthew Kopperud’s goal Friday night against Adirondack was changed to Griffin Luce. That goal now reads “2. WOR Kopperud (8) (Dudek, Luce) 19:15”.
The three stars of the game were
1. ME – Chase Zieky
2. ME – Owen Pederson
3. ME – Tristan Thompson
The 210Sports Player of the Game was Griffin Luce.
Even Strength Lines
Repaci / Kaplan / Loughran
Ginnell / Callin / Dudek
Donhauser / DeMelis / Mahshie
Cheremeta / Hatten / Johnson
Welsh / Luce
Rons / Klee
Hora / Dickinson
Our affiliates last night
NY Islanders 3, Philadelphia 1
Bridgeport 5, Syracuse 2
In the ECHL’s North Division last night
Norfolk 5, Trois-Rivieres 4 SO
Reading 3, Greenville 2
Wheeling 4, Kansas City 3
BOX SCORE
Worcester 0 0 2 – 2
Maine 1 1 2 – 4
1st Period-1, Maine, Hudson 6 (Kalmikov, Pederson), 1:07. Penalties-No Penalties
2nd Period-2, Maine, Thompson 1 (Zieky), 8:59 (PP). Penalties-Bean Mne (slashing), 2:20; Dickinson Wor (tripping), 7:50; Luce Wor (cross-checking), 8:59; Hatten Wor (high-sticking), 15:14; Vidmar Mne (hooking), 17:22; Kaplan Wor (unsportsmanlike conduct), 18:01; Mahshie Wor (fighting – major), 18:01; Deveaux Mne (fighting – major), 18:01; Jermain Mne (unsportsmanlike conduct), 18:01.
3rd Period-3, Maine, Pederson 7 (Zieky), 5:46. 4, Worcester, Luce 5 (Hatten), 6:07. 5, Maine, Jermain 5 (Sarlo, Zieky), 10:36. 6, Worcester, Kaplan 13 (Donhauser, Welsh), 14:40. Penalties-Ginnell Wor (unsportsmanlike conduct), 14:25; Deveaux Mne (unsportsmanlike conduct), 14:25; Ginnell Wor (double – roughing, misconduct – continuing altercation), 16:47; Loughran Wor (double – roughing, misconduct – continuing altercation), 16:47; Underwood Mne (double – roughing, misconduct – continuing altercation), 16:47; Vidmar Mne (double – roughing, misconduct – continuing altercation), 16:47.
Shots on Goal-Worcester 6-13-10-29. Maine 8-12-12-32.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 0 / 2; Maine 1 / 3.
Goalies-Worcester, Bullion 7-11-0-2 (32 shots-28 saves). Maine, Bischel 11-7-1-0 (29 shots-27 saves).
A-4,310
Referees-Dylan Sater (4).
Linesmen-Matthew Heinen (93), Jack McQuesten (53).
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