The Worcester Railers headed north Friday to take on the Maine Mariners at the Cross Insurance Arena in Portland in what was on paper the easiest of their three games this weekend and after taking a 2-1 second-period lead surrendered four consecutive goals to end up on the wrong end of a 5-3 final.
That, coupled with Reading’s 11-round shootout win against Norfolk, ties the Railers and Royals for fourth place in the ECHL’s North Division, with fifth place going home after the end of the regular season. Reading has the advantage of having two games in hand against Worcester and playing a significantly easier schedule.
Unless Worcester can find a way to consistently beat the Trois-Rivieres Lions, the ECHL’s #3 ranked team, and who the Railers play for the next five games, Worcester fans will once again be looking at an early off-season.
Maine had the only goal in the opening 20 minutes when Lynden McCallum fired one through traffic and beat Railers netminder Hugo Ollas high to the stick side at 6:46.
Early in the second frame, Jordan Kaplan knotted the game 1-1 with a nice backhand power play goal at 3:06. Matt DeMelis and Anthony Repaci had the assists on the play.
Eighty seconds later Worcester had the lead Tyler Kobryn, assisted by Repaci, when Maine netminder Brad Arvanitis got caught in no man’s land and Kobryn was able to flip it into the net.
The Mariners would go on to tie it on a power play goal at 11:37 when they should actually have been shorthanded after referee David Lilly inexplicably called Railers defender Ryan Dickinson for roughing after Dickinson was smacked in the face twice by Christian Sarlo. Wyllum Deveaux was the one who eventually capitalized on the referee’s error. Brooklyn Kalmikov then followed 90 seconds later to make it 3-2 Maine.
In the third, the Railers ended up on the wrong end of another Referee Lilly miscue when Michael Underwood clearly fired the puck on Ollas after the whistle, and in the ensuing scrum, only Griffin Luce was called for a penalty. Luckily the Worcester penalty killers took care of that situation.
They didn’t take care of the Mariners’ next opportunity when Jacob Hudson scored 11 seconds after Dickinson sat down to serve a well-deserved roughing minor. At 14:49 Sarlo made it 5-2 Mariners.
Mason Klee scored what was essentially a meaningless goal at 15:20, although newcomer Alec Cicero did pick up his first pro point on the play, so maybe the goal was meaningless adjacent. Connor Welsh had the other helper.
The Railers did not seriously threaten the rest of the way, which included a six-on-four power play.
After making a mad dash from Trois-Rivieres after their 6-1 win over Adirondack the Lions will be Worcester’s weekend opponent at the DCU Center, with Saturday’s puck drop at 6pm.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Kabore Dunn (3-day IR), Riley Ginnell, Anthony Hora (IR/unknown), Kolby Johnson (IR/upper body), Ryan Mahshie, Tanner Schachle (IR/unknown), and Matt Ustaski (IR/unknown). Michael Bullion was the backup goaltender.
On Wednesday Bridgeport recalled Riley Piercey from the Railers, and on Thursday they assigned Justin Gill to Worcester. You’d think a team that has managed just 33 points on the season (as of Friday morning) and that’s 34 points out of a playoff spot might want its players to play meaningful games and assign them to a team in a playoff chase, but that’s obviously not the way any team run by a person whose last name is Lamoriello does business. It should also make Railers owner Cliff Rucker want to do business with another organization.
A scoring change from last week, add an assist to Jordan Kaplan on Riley Piercey’s overtime game-winner from last Friday. That goal now reads “OT WOR Piercey 9 (Walton, Kaplan), 2:07”. That assist gives Kaplan 28 on the season.
If you’re a member of the Railers Booster Club Facebook page you may have seen this question answered already, but the ECHL’s Recall/Assignment deadline recently passed and there was some question as to what that meant. The deadline applies to NHL/AHL contracted players who were playing in the ECHL at the deadline. Those players can no longer be reassigned to another team in the league. If there is a player on recall to the AHL/NHL at the deadline they can still be assigned to any team in the ECHL after the deadline passes.
Taking a quick look up to College Hill at the Holy Cross Men’s hockey team, last week’s sweep of Army garnered the Crusaders three of the four AHA Men’s Players of the Week for the semifinal round. Brody Gagno was “Defenseman of the Week”, Tomas Gale was “Goaltender of the Week”, and Matthew Kursonis was “Rookie of the Week”. Gagno assisted on the OT winner Friday and was plus-4 over the two games, Gale finished the series with an incredible 1.46 goals-against average and .960 save percentage, and Kursonis netted two goals over the weekend. In other news, Liam McLinskey was named 2024-25 AHA “Player of the Year” and “Forward of the Year” and was the league’s Scoring Champion. For the second season in a row, McLinskey is a Hobey Baker finalist. Gale was named “Goaltender of the Year” and earned the Goaltending Champion title with a league-leading .940 save percentage in Atlantic Hockey games. Crusaders head coach Bill Riga was named the AHA Coach of the Year.
Coach Riga only played seven pro hockey games, all with the Western Professional Hockey League’s El Paso Buzzards in the 1996-97 season. That team won the President’s Cup as league playoff champion, although Riga was not on the team by then. Former Worcester pros on that Buzzards squad include Chris Gordon, Jamie Thompson, and Sean Whyte. Riga played college hockey at UMass-Lowell, where he was teammates with former IceCats Ed Campbell and Dwayne Roloson.
The three stars of the game were
1. ME – Tristan Thompson (#15)
2. ME – Lynden McCallum (#11)
3. ME – Jacob Hudson (#8)
The 210Sports Player of the Game was Tyler Kobryn.
Even Strength Lines
Kopperud / Callin / Loughran
Kobryn / DeMelis / Repaci
Donhauser / Kaplan / Gill
Hatten / Dudek / Cicero
Welsh / Walton
Luce / Klee
Rajaniemi / Dickinson
Press Releases
RAILERS: Worcester Loses 5-3 to Maine on Friday Night
MARINERS: Mariners Derail Worcester, Win Rivalry Cup
Our affiliates last night
No games scheduled
In the ECHL’s North Division last night
Wheeling 3, Toledo 2 OT
Reading 2, Norfolk 1 SO
Trois-Rivieres 6, Adirondack 1
BOX SCORE
Worcester 0 2 1 – 3
Maine 1 2 2 – 5
1st Period-1, Maine, McCallum 23 (Thompson, Hudson), 6:46. Penalties-Luce Wor (holding), 8:54; Jermain Mne (slashing), 11:25; Kopperud Wor (double – roughing, misconduct – continuing altercation), 12:59; Underwood Mne (roughing, misconduct – continuing altercation), 12:59.
2nd Period-2, Worcester, Kaplan 18 (DeMelis, Repaci), 3:06 (PP). 3, Worcester, Kobryn 9 (Repaci), 4:26. 4, Maine, Deveaux 15 (Thompson, McCallum), 11:37 (PP). 5, Maine, Kalmikov 17 (Sarlo, Thompson), 13:07. Penalties-Dennis Mne (tripping), 1:48; Dickinson Wor (roughing), 10:27; Lamppa Mne (tripping), 16:55.
3rd Period-6, Maine, Hudson 12 (McCallum, Deveaux), 6:33 (PP). 7, Maine, Sarlo 12 (Lamppa, Kalmikov), 14:49. 8, Worcester, Klee 6 (Cicero, Welsh), 15:20. Penalties-Luce Wor (roughing), 2:55; Dickinson Wor (roughing), 6:22; Hemstrom Mne (holding), 8:02; Ollas Wor (high-sticking), 9:37; Kalmikov Mne (hooking), 9:57; Bean Mne (cross-checking), 18:38.
Shots on Goal-Worcester 6-9-14-29. Maine 11-10-4-25.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 1 / 6; Maine 2 / 6.
Goalies-Worcester, Ollas 11-14-1-2 (25 shots-20 saves). Maine, Arvanitis 6-5-2-0 (29 shots-26 saves).
A-4,440
Referees-David Lilly (25).
Linesmen-Jack McQuesten (53), Michael Tarquinio (45).
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