The Worcester Railers, once again using the moniker of the Monkey Wrenches, played two periods of sloppy hockey against Bloomington Saturday night at the DCU Center but then took it to their opponents in the third frame to come out on top 6-4.
Unbeknownst to fans, well before the puck was even dropped, Bloomington head coach Phil Barski was already trying to pull some monkey business by complaining to the ECHL that the Railers’ specialty jerseys were too close in color to Bloomington’s white sweaters and that Worcester should wear their dark jerseys in the game. Since Bloomington was solely responsible for the jersey mix-up and had no issues Friday night, the ECHL should have told them to go pound sand.
Unfortunately, the ECHL caved in. Under the guise of “player safety”, despite no issues the night before, the ECHL forced the Railers to wear dark jerseys. Those Monkey Wrenches jerseys were then worn just in warmups.
I’m sure Jim Hallett and Hallett Sports and Entertainment, owners of the Bloomington ECHL franchise, will be making a donation to Be Like Brit, the charity their team’s antics potentially cost money to, right? Of course not. They probably won’t give it a second thought. Perhaps ECHL Commissioner Ryan Crelin could open his checkbook and make a donation. That probably won’t happen either.
Bloomington’s actions were classless and cowardly, and you can fairly describe the ECHL ruling as both of those, too.
Once warmups began Bloomington’s classlessness continued as known troublemaker Mikael Robidoux fired a puck at and then crosschecked Kolby Johnson. Robidoux did everything he could to goad Johnson into an altercation, but the Worcester forward stayed on his side of the center red line and just laughed. Several times later Robidoux clearly skated over the red line while Johnson stayed on his side. It all turned out to be for naught as Johnson wasn’t going to take the bait, and with the last change Robidoux was never sent out on the ice during stoppages to that Johnson could potentially match-up against him.
As for the game, down 1-0 Lincoln Hatten evened up the score at 12:21 of the first period when he backhanded a rebound of Mason Klee’s shot. Cam McDonald had the secondary assist.
Griffin Loughran gave Worcester its first lead of the game at 15:39 with a nice individual effort at the top of the goal crease. JD Dudek and Matthew Kopperud picked up the helpers on the play.
Eighty-two seconds later Matt DeMelis made it 3-1 with the his first of two goals on the night, with Hatten grabbing the lone assist. The replay doesn’t go back far enough to show the great play Hatten made to get the puck in the first place.
Blooming would come back to even the score early in the second period, but Kopperud would connect at 2:43 for the Railers 4-3 lead. Loughran picked up his second point of the night with the helper.
With just over five minutes left in the middle frame, and the score once again tied, Ryan Mahshie threw a nice open ice hit and was promptly jumped by Bloomington’s Josh Boyer. Judging by the video, Boyer probably wished he hadn’t.
As an aside, that’s a textbook instigator minor but referee Chazz Knoche, who at times seemed to be watching a different game than the rest of us, called a holding minor. The box score says “boarding”, but as you can see, that’s also wildly incorrect.
With the Railers needing every point in the standings they can get that third period was going to be big for Worcester, and for the second time in the game it was DeMelis from Hatten as Worcester took the 5-4 lead at 7:24.
With 99 seconds left in regulation Anthony Callin sealed the deal with an empty netter.
That was all for Bloomington as after the final horn the Railers faithful let them know their childish behavior failed as Bloomington skated off the ice, with Robidoux being the first one through the tunell.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Kabore Dunn, Anthony Hora (IR/Unknown), Jordan Kaplan, Anthony Repaci (IR/unknown), Tanner Schachle (3-day IR), and Matt Ustaski (IR/unknown). Michael Bullion was the backup goaltender.
Readers will note that in this post this writer only referred to the Railers Saturday night opponent as “Bloomington”. We intentionally did not mention any Bloomington player except those whose actions rise to potentially suspendable infractions, or, as in the case of one specific highlight, got their butt kicked. To keep this post professional, or at least to the level of professionalism we aim for, we will refrain from calling Bloomington’s ECHL franchise or its head coach Phil Barski as “trash” or any of the others negative adjectives that could easily be used.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the big loss that the Worcester sports’ world just suffered as longtime Spectrum News 1 news director Andy Lacombe leaves the city to take a job in Columbus, Ohio to be the news director for Spectrum News 1 in Ohio, overseeing not only the Columbus operations but also Cleveland and Cincinnati. Lacombe hosted the IceCats and WorSharks games that were occasionally broadcast on Charter/Spectrum, and he also called many Worcester Bravehearts games for the same network. Oddly, my connections to Lacombe were not for his hockey coverage but for his baseball broadcasting, as I’d send along several stats for him to use during his play-by-play of the FCBL franchise. By the time you read this, Lacombe’s final official Worcester job will have already ended when he serves as the Holy Cross public address announcer for the last time when the Crusaders host Bucknell in Men’s basketball on early Saturday afternoon. He has worked the PA for both Men’s and Women’s hoops teams for the Crusaders for 20 years. He is leaving big shoes to fill here in the city, and I wish him well in his new home.
The three stars of the game were
1. WOR – Matt DeMelis
2. WOR – Lincoln Hatten
3. WOR – Matthew Kopperud
The 210Sports Player of the Game was Griffin Loughran.
Even Strength Lines
Kopperud / Callin / Loughran
Donhauser / Dudek / Mahshie
Kobryn / DeMelis / Hatten
Ginnell / Cheremeta / Johnson
Welsh / Luce
McDonald / Klee
Rajaniemi / Dickinson
Our affiliates last night
NY Islanders 7, Nashville 4
Lehigh Valley 5, Bridgeport 3
In the ECHL’s North Division last night
Norfolk 3, Trois-Rivieres 1
Reading 5, Maine 3
Adirondack 7, Wheeling 4
BOX SCORE
Bloomington 2 2 0 – 4
Worcester 3 1 2 – 6
1st Period-1, Bloomington, Lee 9 (Murray, Lockhart), 9:08 (PP). 2, Worcester, Hatten 6 (Klee, McDonald), 12:21 (PP). 3, Worcester, Loughran 8 (Dudek, Kopperud), 15:39. 4, Worcester, DeMelis 5 (Hatten), 17:01. 5, Bloomington, Lee 10 (Katic, Murray), 17:55. Penalties-Klee Wor (holding), 7:42; Dadadzhanov Blm (interference), 11:01; Kobryn Wor (hooking), 14:15; Evans Blm (holding), 14:40.
2nd Period-6, Bloomington, Duhart 1 (Katic, Murray), 1:29 (PP). 7, Worcester, Kopperud 14 (Loughran), 2:43. 8, Bloomington, Murray 4 (Coatta), 7:30. Penalties-Luce Wor (tripping), 1:00; Loughran Wor (holding), 10:42; Boyer Blm (boarding, fighting – major), 14:26; Mahshie Wor (fighting – major), 14:26.
3rd Period-9, Worcester, DeMelis 6 (Hatten), 7:24. 10, Worcester, Callin 17 18:21 (EN). Penalties-No Penalties
Shots on Goal-Bloomington 12-8-5-25. Worcester 17-9-14-40.
Power Play Opportunities-Bloomington 2 / 4; Worcester 1 / 3.
Goalies-Bloomington, Perets 10-9-1-0 (18 shots-14 saves); Kaskisuo 0-4-1-0 (21 shots-20 saves). Worcester, Ollas 11-10-1-2 (25 shots-21 saves).
A-5,720
Referees-Chazz Knoche (33).
Linesmen-Davids Rozitis (90), TJ Dockery (42).
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