The Worcester Railers already had the series win in their back pocket before their Sunday matchup with the Allen Americans at the Credit Union of Texas Event Center even began, but with their first-ever franchise three-in-three road sweep in full view, the Railers came out quick against the Americans and then held on for a 3-1 win over Allen.
In the opening frame, the ice was tilted toward Allen netminder Dylan Wells, and early on, he was keeping his team from getting blown out of their building. But somehow a “nothing” shot from Jordan Kaplan beat him, and it was 1-0 at 11:21. The assists went to Cole Donhauser and Griffin Loughran.
At 15:06, Tyler Kobryn grabbed his second goal in three games with Worcester as Benjamin Lindberg picked up his first ECHL point with the assist.
The goal was Kobryn’s fourth on the season, as he had two goals in 18 games with the Florida Everblades earlier this season.
No matter if it were JD Dudek or Lincoln Hatten, the Railers made it 3-0 at 18:28 when either Dudek’s shot beat Wells or his shot deflected off Hatten and went by Wells. At post time, the goal reads Hatten from Dudek and Matt DeMelis, and we’ll see if that changes later.
While the Railers have been on a hot streak as of late, they still have a major problem of taking silly penalties, and Sunday was no exception. One of those silly penalties, an automatic delay of game minor to Kabore Dunn for shooting the puck out of the play, allowed Brayden Watts to cut the Railers lead to 3-1 at 1:35 of the second period.
That two-goal lead stood up because of the play of goaltender Hugo Ollas, who ended up making 36 saves on the night and earned the #1 star of the game.
The Railers will now head to North Charleston, South Carolina, for a Wednesday morning matchup against the Stingrays as they begin a four-game in five days stretch.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Matthew Boudens (IR/upper body), Mark Cheremeta (3-day IR), Anthony Hora, Kolby Johnson (suspended, game 3 of 3), and Anthony Repaci (IR/unknown). Michael Bullion was the backup goaltender.
Saturday’s matchup between Worcester and Allen took a whopping two hours and 55 minutes to complete, an insanely long time for a hockey game to last. Going to the shootout only added a couple minutes to the total, so without it, Saturday would still be the longest game the Railers have played all season. Entering Sunday’s game, the Railers had played 48 contests, and nine had taken 2:45 or longer to play. If we look at games that lasted 2:40, you could add another few to that total. Unless something out of the ordinary happens, pro hockey games, even with overtime and a shootout, shouldn’t take 2:40 to play.
For the post on Saturday’s Railers’ 4-3 shootout win, I listed a few of the oddities that happened that night, but it seems I missed one. Every so often, we see videos of goalie fights, and they happen often enough that calling them “odd” isn’t really correct. What was odd about the fight that Maine netminder Ryan Bischel got into very early Sunday morning was it was against Parker Bowman, a forward. Bowman has a lot of fights under his belt during his hockey career, but Bischel really holds his own in what appears to be his first hockey tilt of his career.
The three stars of the game were
1. WOR – Hugo Ollas
2. WOR – Jordan Kaplan
3. WOR – Tyler Kobryn
The 210Sports Player of the Game was Lincoln Hatten.
Even Strength Lines
Donhauser / Kaplan / Loughran
Ginnell / Callin / Mahshie
Kobryn / DeMelis / Dudek
Ustaski / x / Hatten
Welsh / Luce
Lindberg / Klee
Dunn / Dickinson
Our affiliates last night
(Sunday)
Bridgeport 4, Providence 2
In the ECHL’s North Division last night
(Sunday)
Trois-Rivieres 6, Adirondack 2
Greenville 5, Wheeling 2
BOX SCORE
Worcester 3 0 0 – 3
Allen 0 1 0 – 1
1st Period-1, Worcester, Kaplan 16 (Donhauser, Loughran), 11:21. 2, Worcester, Kobryn 4 (Lindberg), 15:06. 3, Worcester, Hatten 5 (Dudek, DeMelis), 18:28. Penalties-Kulakov Aln (roughing), 16:24; Callin Wor (roughing), 19:09.
2nd Period-4, Allen, Watts 17 (Brassard, Gorman), 11:35 (PP). Penalties-Dickinson Wor (unsportsmanlike conduct), 5:16; Lindberg Wor (roughing), 5:16; Jacobs Aln (roughing), 5:16; Dudek Wor (cross-checking), 7:01; Dunn Wor (delay of game), 10:37.
3rd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Nault Aln (interference), 3:04; Asuchak Aln (cross-checking), 3:08; Klee Wor (delay of game), 13:52.
Shots on Goal-Worcester 16-10-8-34. Allen 4-17-16-37.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 0 / 3; Allen 1 / 5.
Goalies-Worcester, Ollas 8-8-1-2 (37 shots-36 saves). Allen, Wells 7-7-0-2 (34 shots-31 saves).
A-3,144
Referees-Sam Heidemann (22).
Linesmen-Aaron Schacht (51), Daniel Barnes (76).
—
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 