For 54 minutes Saturday night at the Credit Union of Texas Event Center the Worcester Railers did just about everything they could do to lose their matchup against the Allen Americans but two late third-period goals got them to overtime and the shootout and for the first time in over a calendar year the Railers prevailed in the skills competition and defeated the Americans 4-3.
While over in the Four Nations tourney, Team USA and Team Canada had an incredible first period, the Railers were not so lively. Kamerin Nault made Worcester look silly twice, scoring on both his attempts in the frame to send the Railers to the dressing room down 2-0.
Tyler Kobryn picked a good time to grab his first in a Worcester jersey as he cut the Allen lead to 2-1 at 2:01 of the middle period. JD Dudek had the lone helper on the play.
Worcester didn’t get much chance to tie it at that point as a couple minutes later, Anthony Callin took a double-minor for high-sticking and Brayden Guy converted to give the Americans their two-goal lead back.
With the Railers taking so many undisciplined penalties in that second frame and Worcester’s penalty kill being one of the lowest ranked in the ECHL, it was starting to look like that lead would be enough for Allen and the Railers play early on in the third didn’t exactly make it look like a miracle comeback was in the works.
But occasionally looks can be deceiving.
Out of nowhere, Ryan Dickinson made it a one-goal game with his first tally in 370 days to make it 3-2 Americans. Callin and Riley Ginnell had the assists
With time winding down in regulation, Worcester pulled netminder Michael Bullion for an extra attacker, and Jordan Kaplan evened the score with 80 ticks left on the clock.
Callin and Connor Welsh had the assists on a goal where play-by-play man Tim Foley might have been a little over-excited on the call.
Through overtime the teams went, and on to the shootout where the Railers, well, to be kind, aren’t very good. Only one goal was scored in the skills competition, and luckily for the Worcester faithful, it was by Welsh to give the Railers a 4-3 win.
With the series win guaranteed, the two teams will meet for the final time this season on Sunday afternoon, with a 3pm ET puck drop.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Matthew Boudens (IR/upper body), Mark Cheremeta (3-day IR), Kabore Dunn, Kolby Johnson (suspended, game 2 of 3), and Anthony Repaci (IR/unknown). Hugo Ollas was the backup goaltender. On Saturday Cheremeta was added to the 3-day IR list and is already eligible to return.
I’m sure some are going to make a big deal out of an odd incident that took place right after Ryan Dickinson scored with 5:39 to go in the third, but the only thing odd about it was it took until there were only six minutes of play in regulation for the officials to notice. A goaltender’s stick must have tape at the butt end, and that tape must be white. Looking at the video, both netminders had tape on their sticks, but neither was perfectly white as the sticks had obviously been used in games and practices before, so they needed to be retaped. Railers head coach Nick Tuzzolino was less than impressed with the officials noticing this so late in the game that he himself taped Michael Bullion’s stick and then fired the tape down the bench. Allen netminder Dylan Wells also needed to have his stick taped, and it was done so by the Americans’ equipment manager. The thing is, that check is supposed to happen pregame. While comical, it’s just a case of ECHL officials not performing their jobs correctly. And, unfortunately, there’s nothing odd about that.
There were some actual odd happenings in the ECHL Saturday, starting with, or maybe more correctly, ending with the Rapid City Rush hosting the Maine Mariners with a scheduled 11:59pm local time puck drop. Rapid City is in the Mountain Time zone, two hours behind Eastern time, so that was a 1:59am starting time for the Maine fans. The game didn’t officially start until Sunday at 12:01am MT and ended 2:33 later, or 2:34am MT. That’s 4:34am ET, and for people who think that’s crazy, this writer is awake before then every working day. In what doesn’t seem odd on the surface, the Tahoe at Wichita and Tulsa at Kansas City games combined for 16 goals during regulation. The oddity is all of those goals took place in the Thunder’s 9-7 win over the Knight Monsters. The Mavericks and Oilers didn’t score a goal in regulation or overtime, and there was only one in the shootout when Cade Borchardt beat Talyn Boyko to give KC the 1-0 win. And, yes, both goaltenders get credited with a shutout.
The Railers are playing a skater short this weekend due to Kolby Johnson’s suspension, and since he has to stay on the active roster, which is limited to 20 players, that means Worcester only has 19 available to play in a game. Longtime hockey scribe Bill Ballou and I have both wanted the rule to be in pro hockey that if a player is suspended you lose that player on the bench, and the current situation in the ECHL almost always does that. Note the “almost always.” ECHL teams are allowed an extra active roster spot for the first month of the season, meaning 21 players. A player who is suspended during that time doesn’t cost a team a skater in the game because of the extra active slot. The ECHL needs to make a change in its rules, either making all suspensions cost a skater on the bench or allowing teams to put a suspended player on the reserve list. Player eligibility shouldn’t be based on the calendar, which is what the ECHL has now. It should cost a team a game spot always or never, and hopefully, this summer the ECHL Board of Governors will make a switch one way or the other.
There have been some questions asked of me about when players are eligible to be activated off the injured reserve list. The answer is pretty simple for both the 3-day and 14-day IR lists. All you do is count the number of days since a player has last appeared in a game, and once you reach the 3 or 14 for the list the player is on, the next day they’re eligible to be activated. While you occasionally see retroactive dates listed on transactions, in reality, they’re all retroactive to the day after a player last played no matter if it’s listed that way or not. So, going back to last week, when Anthony Repaci was added to the 3-day IR list on Tuesday, that was already three days (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday) since he’d last played, so he could be activated on Wednesday. Now that Repaci is on the 14-day list, he can be activated on February 23rd (Sunday through Saturday twice). Since Worcester will be in South Carolina playing their last game on this road trip on the 23rd, unless Repaci is on the trip, odds are he won’t be activated until later in the week, presuming he’s ready to play, of course.
The three stars of the game were
1. WOR – Connor Welsh
2. ALN – Kamerin Nault
3. WOR – Jordan Kaplan
The 210Sports Player of the Game was Anthony Callin.
Even Strength Lines
Donhauser / Kaplan / Loughran
Ginnell / Callin / Mahshie
Kobryn / DeMelis / Dudek
Ustaski / x / Hatten
Welsh / Luce
Hora / Klee
Lindberg / Dickinson
Our affiliates last night
Providence 5, Bridgeport 0
In the ECHL’s North Division last night
Rapid City 6, Maine 4
Trois-Rivieres 4, Adirondack 3
Reading 2, Norfolk 1
South Carolina 3, Wheeling 1
BOX SCORE
Worcester 0 1 2 0 – 4
Allen 2 1 0 0 – 3
1st Period-1, Allen, Nault 2 (Wilson, Blaisdell), 6:22. 2, Allen, Nault 3 (Crnkovic, Polino), 17:58. Penalties-Dickinson Wor (hooking), 11:44.
2nd Period-3, Worcester, Kobryn 3 (Dudek), 2:01. 4, Allen, Guy 11 (Brassard, Jacobs), 4:11 (PP). Penalties-Callin Wor (high-sticking – double), 2:50; Klee Wor (tripping), 9:51; Lindberg Wor (roughing), 12:33; Isaacson Aln (roughing), 12:33; Nault Aln (interference), 12:33; Dudek Wor (unsportsmanlike conduct, roughing), 14:12; Kulakov Aln (roughing), 14:12; Luce Wor (delay of game), 18:17.
3rd Period-5, Worcester, Dickinson 1 (Callin, Ginnell), 14:11. 6, Worcester, Kaplan 15 (Callin, Welsh), 18:40. Penalties-Lindberg Wor (holding), 8:47; Isaacson Aln (roughing), 8:47.
1st OT Period- No Scoring.Penalties-No Penalties
Shootout – Worcester 1 (Donhauser NG, Dudek NG, Welsh G), Allen 0 (Jacobs NG, Matikka NG, Watts NG).
Shots on Goal-Worcester 7-14-11-3-1-36. Allen 14-11-6-4-0-35.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 0 / 1; Allen 1 / 6.
Goalies-Worcester, Bullion 10-12-0-2 (35 shots-32 saves). Allen, Wells 7-6-0-2 (35 shots-32 saves).
A-5,880
Referees-Sam Heidemann (22), Luke Gagnon (13).
Linesmen-Michael Miggans (47), Trent Williams (48).
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