On Saturday afternoon at the Colisée Vidéotron in Trois-Rivieres, 1,844 French-Canadian fans watched the Worcester Railers turn a 3-1 third-period deficit against one of the best teams in the ECHL into a tie game and through overtime and into the shootout where the Railers scored the only goal as they defeated the Lions 4-3.
Grabbing a point getting the game to overtime is akin to stealing, but getting that second point was out and out thievery.
After a scoreless opening frame that saw 9:48 elapse before they had a shot on goal, Worcester grabbed their first lead of the weekend when Cole Donhauser scored his second goal in as many games, with this one looking a lot like his tally on Friday. Lincoln Hatten and Mason Klee had the assists on the second-period goal at 10:54
Trois-Rivieres knotted the game at 14:32 on a lucky goal from Anthony Beauregard, where his shot floated in on Worcester goaltender Michael Bullion, but with traffic in front of him, he couldn’t see it, and it landed next to him and rolled in. Nicolas Guay then made it 2-1 Lions on an odd-man rush goal at 17:15
Beauregard followed with a goal just a tenth of a second before the second-period horn sounded to make it 3-1, and at the time, with all the momentum in Trois-Rivieres’ corner, that should have been enough for the Lions. Entering the game the Railers were among the league leaders with six wins while trailing after two periods, but the Trois-Rivieres were an impressive 27-1-2-1 while leading after 40 minutes, and with a backbreaking goal at the horn and Worcester still committing far too many mistakes it was looking like the Lions had those two points locked up tightly in the back.
So, the Railers simply decided to break in and steal the win.
The key to coming back from a two-goal third-period deficit is getting one early, and Matt DeMelis did just that with just 65 ticks off the clock. JD Dudek and Tyler Kobryn were his co-conspirators.
After a not-so-great power play chance, Worcester had a second opportunity with the man advantage, where they got a little luck and a sneaky shot from Matthew Kopperud, and suddenly the game was even 3-3 with seven minutes to go. Ryan Mahshie earned an assist as the puck hit his skate and bounced back to Kopperud.
Keeping that 3-3 score and securing a point was made a lot harder by another Railers error, and they needed to kill a penalty that carried over into the extra session. And then, when that one ended, they needed to kill another while in overtime. Despite having a power play chance of their own, which was, to be kind, not good, they could manage just one shot in the extra seven minutes.
To the shootout the teams went, and after each side missed in the first round, Connor Welsh gave Worcester a green checkmark in round two.
It then came down to Bullion, who, with a save, would complete the comeback. Well, we already know what happens, so if you haven’t seen it, just enjoy the moment again.
The two teams play one more time this weekend on Sunday, with another 3pm ET start.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Riley Ginnell, Anthony Hora (IR/unknown), Kolby Johnson, Anthony Repaci (IR/upper body), Tanner Schachle (IR/unknown), and Matt Ustaski (IR/unknown). Hugo Ollas was the backup goaltender.
While the Railers game was going on, the ECHL announced three suspensions, and they went to some very familiar names. Iowa’s Nico Blachman was suspended indefinitely pending a hearing and fined an undisclosed amount as a result of his actions in Friday night’s Heartlanders’ game against Bloomington. His opponent in that altercation that took place at the end of the first period was none other than Mikael Robidoux, who also got himself suspended indefinitely pending a hearing for the incident. They both left the bench to get into a fight when the horn sounded to end the opening frame. While they had the ban hammers out, the ECHL gave Kansas City’s Daniel “Diamond Hands” Amesbury two games off for his cross-checking major and game misconduct late in the third period of the Mavericks game against Idaho. Watching the videos, Blachman and Robidoux will face potential 10-game suspensions for leaving their benches to start an altercation, and while Amesbury did indeed crosscheck Idaho’s Ryan Gagnon in the head and deserved the penalties he got, the two games are all a reputation call.
If you’re on Facebook, you’ve undoubtedly run across ads for Railers merchandise from sites that try to make it look like they’re official but are instead just links to sites selling pirated team merchandise. It should go without saying that people shouldn’t be purchasing anything from these sites, but seeing as we’ve all seen fans wearing some of these items at the DCU Center, I guess it needs to be spelled out. Firstly, you should know your personal information isn’t safe in dealing with these sites. Again, that should have been a no-brainer, but at least one person I know of has run afoul purchasing from them, so here we are posting about it. Secondly, it takes money out of the team’s pocket, both in actual sales and in licensing. When you see official merchandise getting more expensive, that’s one of the reasons why. Yes, the ECHL and the PHPA (the players’ union) go after these sites, but the process is slow, and it’s like whack-a-mole trying to get these sites taken down. And by buying pirated merchandise, you’re also potentially taking money out of the players’ pockets as they collectively get a cut of merchandise using names and numbers. In short, all of this is stealing from the people you’re trying to support.
The three stars of the game were
1. WOR – #18 Matthew Kopperud
2. TR – #91 Anthony Beauregard
3. TR – #9 Nicolas Guay
The 210Sports Player of the Game was Matt DeMelis.
Even Strength Lines
Kopperud / Callin / Loughran
Donhauser / Kaplan / Hatten
Kobryn / DeMelis / Dudek
Cheremeta / X / Mahshie
Welsh / Luce
McDonald / Klee
Rajaniemi / Dickinson
Dunn
Press Releases
RAILERS: Railers Stun Lions With Thirds Period Comeback
LIONS:
Our affiliates last night
NY Islanders 4, San Jose 2
Toronto 3, Bridgeport 2 OT
In the ECHL’s North Division last night
Reading 4, Maine 1
Wheeling 6, Adirondack 4
Norfolk 3, Florida 2 OT
BOX SCORE
Worcester 0 1 2 0 – 4
Trois-Rivières 0 3 0 0 – 3
1st Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Kopperud Wor (tripping), 5:18; Adams-Moisan Tr (tripping), 8:08; Kobryn Wor (holding), 17:09.
2nd Period-1, Worcester, Donhauser 7 (Hatten, Klee), 10:54. 2, Trois-Rivières, Beauregard 22 (Paquette, Proctor), 14:32. 3, Trois-Rivières, Guay 10 (Jandric, Martin), 17:15. 4, Trois-Rivières, Beauregard 23 (McLeod), 19:59. Penalties-Rajaniemi Wor (slashing), 11:44; Donhauser Wor (roughing), 15:40; Ducharme Tr (roughing), 15:40; Novak Tr (hooking), 17:29.
3rd Period-5, Worcester, DeMelis 7 (Dudek, Kobryn), 1:05. 6, Worcester, Kopperud 15 (Mahshie), 12:58 (PP). Penalties-Mahshie Wor (roughing), 6:45; Adams-Moisan Tr (roughing), 6:45; Mianscum Tr (slashing), 8:39; Ducharme Tr (cross-checking), 12:54; Mahshie Wor (slashing), 18:06.
1st OT Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Callin Wor (high-sticking), 0:09; Guay Tr (hooking), 2:03.
Shootout – Worcester 1 (Kopperud NG, Welsh G), Trois-Rivières 0 (Novak NG, Cormier NG, Beauregard NG).
Shots on Goal-Worcester 9-13-10-1-1-34. Trois-Rivières 6-18-9-6-0-39.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 1 / 5; Trois-Rivières 0 / 5.
Goalies-Worcester, Bullion 11-13-0-2 (39 shots-36 saves). Trois-Rivières, Jones 12-2-4-1 (33 shots-30 saves).
A-1,844
Referees-Sam Heidemann (22), Koletrane Wilson (53).
Linesmen-Ben Fortin (44), Maxime Carre (77).
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