The Worcester Railers, playing under the guise of the Worcester Monkey Wrenches, got single goals in each of the three periods and another fantastic game from goaltender Hugo Ollas to defeat the Bloomington Bison 3-1.
The first period was played fairly evenly, with the Railers…err…Monkey Wrenches and Bloomington seemingly feeling each other out, and Worcester enjoyed a 10-7 shot advantage. There was one penalty in the period, and Mattew Kopperud made it 1-0 with the power play goal. Anthony Callin and Connor Welsh had the assists on the play.
It took just 29 seconds into the middle frame for the Wrenches to increase their lead to 2-0 on a nice tip from Lincoln Hatten. Welsh and newcomer Tanner Schachle had the helpers. The goal went to video review, but watching the highlight it would be very hard to tell it was to see if the puck was deflected by a kicking motion. This writer has never seen a goal disallowed for a kicking motion when neither the puck nor skate was on the ice, and he still hasn’t. That gives Welsh 38 assists on the season, one behind Barry Almeida’s franchise record of 39 in a campaign.
Danny Katic would get the Bison within one at 17:05 of the frame on a nice deflection of Matt Staudacher’s shot, and it’s one of those times where every Worcester player did pretty much everything they were supposed to do and somehow the puck still ends up in your net.
At 4:53 of the third Jordan Kaplan gave Worcester its two-goal lead back with Griffin Luce and Schachle picking up points on the play.
Earlier this week this writer posted about the lack of discipline the Railers have shown this season, so the fact Worcester, while wearing Monkey Wrenches jerseys, didn’t take a penalty for the first 54:55 of the game might be a sign to make the moniker permanent. One thing that absolutely seems permanent is referee Casey Terreri, who somehow works mostly AHL games now, making a very questionable call against a Worcester team. That call came at 14:55 of the third when Ryan Dickinson and Jonny Evans skated into each other in the Bloomington end. Despite clearly not seeing the play and a full three seconds elapsing with Evans laying on the ice, Referee Terreri stuck his arm up to call Dickinson for interference. Was it interference? Maybe. Did Terreri see it? Absolutely not. Luckily the Railers killed it off.
Eventually Bloomington pulled netminder Yaniv Perets for an extra attacker, but that was all for naught as the score would remain 3-1 until the final buzzer. There were some scuffles after the horn, with Mikael Robidoux picking up a meaningless roughing minor, but it was the continuing jawing between the teams that will potentially make Saturday’s rematch a must-see affair.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Mark Cheremeta (IR/unknown), Kabore Dunn, Riley Ginnell, Anthony Hora (3-day IR), Kolby Johnson (suspended, game 3 of 3), Anthony Repaci (IR/unknown), and Matt Ustaski (IR/unknown). Michael Bullion was the backup goaltender.
As every regular reader here knows, I’m a big fan of games where both teams wear their dark jerseys. It doesn’t happen enough in hockey, and I take great pleasure in pointing out occasions where it could have happened, but teams just didn’t do it. But never once have I ever thought “hey, these two teams should both be wearing white jerseys”. Well, that’s what we ended up with Friday night as the Railers wore a cream-colored specialty Monkey Wrenches jersey while the Bison wore their white jerseys. I asked Railers COO Mike Myers about it, and he said Bloomington was sent pictures of the jerseys and decided which jerseys they would bring, and it was their whites. I will say the video makes it look worse than it was as live on the ice the differences between the sweaters made it so there was no confusion between the teams.
In transactions going back to last week when this writer’s “hockey free weekend” started, Worcester acquired Bennett Stockdale from the Indy Fuel in exchange for cash considerations last Thursday. On Sunday, the Railers traded Matt Boudens, who was on injured reserve with a broken hand and somehow managed to get himself suspended, to Fort Wayne for the ever-popular “future considerations”. Monday saw Worcester releasing Benjamin Lindberg and Bennett Stockdale and trading more of those “future considerations” to Orlando for Tanner Schachle. On Tuesday, Cam McDonald was loaned to the Railers by Bridgeport.
As it’s the first time these two teams have met this season, we’ll do the usual and look at some roster and area connections between the squads, starting with Bison’s captain Eddie Matsushima, who played 11 games for the Railers in the COVID-shortened 2019-20 season, where he notched four assists. The Railers lucked out as Matsushima signed a PTO with the San Diego Gulls on Thursday. Fellow forward Kohei Sato spent a season at Bentley University, and winger Sam Sternschein spent a year at Boston College. Former Railers forward Andrei Bakanov made a stop in Bloomington this season, which was the second of five ECHL teams he’s played with this season. Last week, the Bison traded former Railers forward Austin Heidemann to Greenville, where he chose not to report and was suspended by the Swamp Rabbits. For Worcester, with it being their ECHL affiliate Hugo Ollas was originally assigned to the Bison by the New York Rangers before he was re-assigned to the Railers on January 3rd, 2025.
The three stars of the game were
1. WOR – Hugo Ollas
2. WOR – Lincoln Hatten
3. WOR – Tanner Schachle
The 210Sports Player of the Game was Connor Welsh.
Even Strength Lines
Kopperud / Callin / Dudek
Donhauser / Kaplan / Mahshie
Kobryn / DeMelis / Loughran
Schachle / X / Hatten
Welsh / Luce
McDonald / Klee
Rajaniemi / Dickinson
Our affiliates last night
Lehigh Valley 5, Bridgeport 2
In the ECHL’s North Division last night
Norfolk 4, Trois-Rivieres 0
Reading 4, Maine 2
Wheeling 3, Adirondack 1
BOX SCORE
Bloomington 0 1 0 – 1
Worcester 1 1 1 – 3
1st Period-1, Worcester, Kopperud 13 (Callin, Welsh), 9:02 (PP). Penalties-Neill Blm (hooking), 7:41.
2nd Period-2, Worcester, Hatten 5 (Welsh, Schachle), 0:29. 3, Bloomington, Katic 8 (Staudacher, Sato), 17:05. Penalties-Lockhart Blm (high-sticking), 2:25.
3rd Period-4, Worcester, Kaplan 17 (Luce, Schachle), 4:53. Penalties-Evans Blm (delay of game), 1:28; Dickinson Wor (interference), 14:55; Bajkov Blm (diving/embellishment), 16:45; Donhauser Wor (hooking), 16:45; Robidoux Blm (roughing), 20:00.
Shots on Goal-Bloomington 7-7-10-24. Worcester 10-11-3-24.
Power Play Opportunities-Bloomington 0 / 1; Worcester 1 / 4.
Goalies-Bloomington, Perets 10-9-1-0 (24 shots-21 saves). Worcester, Ollas 10-10-1-2 (24 shots-23 saves).
A-3,466
Referees-Chazz Knoche (33), Casey Terreri (14).
Linesmen-Davids Rozitis (90), Noah Merrow (57).
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