The box score says there were 5,720 at the DCU Center Saturday night, but when Justin Gill scored at 1:17 of overtime to turn a Worcester Railers 4-1 third-period deficit into an absolutely improbable 5-4 overtime victory over the ECHL’s third-ranked Trois-Rivieres Lions you’d have thought there was 50,000 in the building.
To call it the greatest comeback in Railers’ franchise history, considering the circumstances is not overstating it in the least. In his game story/press release for the team (linked below), Bill Ballou says it was the second-greatest comeback in Worcester pro hockey history, bettered only by the IceCats’ 7-6 victory over the Manchester Monarchs here on March 30, 2003, who trailed 6-1 after 40 minutes and came back to win 7-6, also in overtime. This writer concurs.
But this writer also knows, that just like that thrilling IceCats comeback, the Railers one from Saturday night should never have happened.
It takes two teams for a comeback like both of those to happen: one that finally wakes up from a long slumber or who finally figures out what their opponent is doing and makes changes to counteract them, and the other to forget what got them there, or worse, who takes their foot off the gas and can’t find the accelerator again. It was the former that helped Worcester gain two points, and the latter is what doomed Trois-Rivieres last night.
Things could not have started off worse for the Railers, who committed a penalty just 70 seconds into the game. Twelve seconds and one shot later, it was 1-0 Lions on a Chris Jandric power play goal at 1:22. Worcester also took the second penalty of the game, and then it took 33 seconds and two shots for Tyler Hylland to make it 2-0 at 9:20.
Israel Mianscum made it 3-0 Lions at 13:40 on what was a pretty nice play, with Brycen Martin essentially passing the puck off of Railers netminder Michael Bullion by shooting it so Bullion had to kick the puck away, and he kicked it right to Mianscum.
Trois-Rivieres led the opening period in shots at 9-8, and that “nine” turned out to be an important number as while the Lions had nine shots in that opening 20 minutes, they only had nine more for next 41:17 of the contest.
Deep into the middle period Worcester got their third power play chance of the game, with their first two being, to be kind, not good. The third wasn’t going all that well either until suddenly Gill scored at 16:29 to get the Railers on the board. Mason Klee had the lone assist on the play.
Justin Ducharme’s goal 2:35 into the third period made it 4-1 Lions, and when perch mate Rich Lundin returned to his seat after taking care of his Booster Club 50/50 duties mentioned to this writer that with the way Worcester was playing and the score as it was, he was shocked to see me still at the game. Oddly, not many other people were getting up to leave either.
Turned out we were right to stay.
For most of the game to that point Railers head coach Nick Tuzzolino looked, well, slightly less than pleased. We won’t say that he looked like he was checked out of the game, because that’s not fair to say without asking him, so we’ll instead say that it was obvious he was well past annoyed, both with his team and with the officiating.
With 9:06 on the clock Worcester had another power play chance, and down three and with his team not playing very well Tuzzolino decided to shake things up by pulling Bullion for a sixth attacker.
Enter Gill again, and it was 4-2 at 12:49, with Matthew Kopperud and Klee getting the assists in what was the franchise’s third earliest extra attacker goal, and earliest that wasn’t on a delayed penalty call.
Sensing his team was gaining momentum and the Lions were slowly falling back on their heels Tuzzolino pulled Bullion for a second time with exactly five minutes left on the clock. Sixteen seconds later, with help from Anthony Callin and Connor Welsh, captain Anthony Repaci made it 4-3 Lions.
The Railers had never scored three extra attacker goals in one game in their franchise’s history, but that’s what it was going to take for Worcester to knot the score, and with 3:21 on the clock Tuzzolino called Bullion to the bench for a third time. And for a third time it worked as the DCU Center exploded at 17:06 when Matt DeMelis tied the game 4-4. Welsh and Repaci had the helpers.
With one point stolen and momentum completely on their side the Railers went right for the throats of the Lions. The puck was in the Railers zone for all of 14 seconds in the extra stanza, the entire time in the possession of Welsh. The rest of the time the puck was in the Lions zone or heading in that direction.
Soon the puck was tied up alone the near wall with Jordan Kaplan and Klee doing battle with three Lions players. Gill, who replaced Repaci, could be seen wavering between playing up high in the zone, where positionally be belonged to play defense if needed, and getting closer to the net to receive what he hoped was a pass.
It ended up being a pass, from Jordan Kaplan, and we all know the rest of the story.
In the post-game celebration Kaplan took a two-handed slash at Logan Nijhoff, and the two squared off as the benches emptied. Kaplan received an aggressor game misconduct, and unless the ECHL steps in and voids that, which they should do but likely won’t, Kaplan will be getting Sunday off.
Morgan Adams-Moisan, who started two altercations in the scrum after leaving the bench, went unpenalized by referee David Lilly, who was nothing short of terrible in both Friday’s and Saturday’s games. It’s a safe bet the ECHL will be viewing the video of all the postgame shenanigans.
The two teams play again Sunday at 3pm before heading to Trois-Rivieres next weekend for three more meetings.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Alec Cicero, Ryan Dickinson, JD Dudek (3-day IR), Riley Ginnell (IR/unknown), Anthony Hora (IR/unknown), Kolby Johnson (IR/upper body), and Matt Ustaski (IR/unknown). Hugo Ollas was the backup goaltender.
As noted, the three extra attacker goals in a single game are a Railers franchise mark, but it’s not even close to the Worcester pro hockey record as the IceCats had five extra attacker goals against the Springfield Falcons on December 14, 1997. Yes, you read that right. Five. The IceCats and Falcons played one of the oddest games in AHL history scoring eight total goals in the final 4:25 of the game. It was essentially a blow out before the real weirdness started, with the Falcons taking a 5-0 lead into the third period on goals by Brad Tiley (4:22, 1st), Scott Levins (12:08 PP, 1st), Daniel Briere (15:17, 1st), Brian Farrell (:12, 2nd), and Rob Murray (16:33 PP, 2nd). With the ‘Cats going nothing head coach Greg Gilbert decided to pull goaltender Fred Cassivi down five goals, saying post-game “we had to try something.” How the next eight goals happened, as listed by Bill Ballou in the Telegram the next day, it was “Stephane Roy making it 5-1 from 25-feet out at 15:35, Ivan Ciernik had a tap in at 15:45 to make it 5-2, and Derek Diener picked up a loose puck at 17:51 and it was 5-3. Shane Doan had an empty net goal at 18:28, 6-3. Shayne Toporowski then scored from a tough angle at 18:36, and it’s now 6-4. Doan added another empty netter at 18:52, 7-5. Terry Hollinger backhanded a rebound in at 19:08 to make it 7-5. Richard Lintner then connected on a 100-foot slap shot into an empty net for the 8-5 final.” At the time it was the fastest two, three, four, five, six, and eight goals scored in AHL history. Amazingly, it wasn’t the fastest seven. I believe it’s still the fastest four, five, six, and eight in AHL history.
Holy Cross’ run to the NCAA Men’s hockey championship ended Saturday night in a 6-3 loss to Bentley. The Crusaders had a 2-0 lead after the first period, but then the wheels fell off and the Falcons scored six of the next seven goals to secure the Atlantic Hockey Championship’s automatic bid into the Men’s tourney.
During the first period Saturday, with there literally nothing good happening for the Railers, Booster Club president was showing me some goofy things that Twitter’s Grok AI can do. He had it turn my blog post for Friday’s 5-3 loss to Maine into a limerick. While I’m not a huge fan of AI-created art, this is amusing enough to share.
The Railers took on Maine with might,
Two points they chased into the night,
But five goals went in,
Their defense wore thin,
A 5-3 loss dimmed their playoff fight.
The three stars of the game were
1. WOR – Justin Gill (#7)
2. WOR – Matt DeMelis (#37)
3. WOR – Anthony Repaci (#81)
The 210Sports Player of the Game was Connor Welsh.
Even Strength Lines
Kopperud / Callin / Loughran
Kobryn / DeMelis / Repaci
Donhauser / Kaplan / Gill
Schachle / Mahshie / Hatten
Welsh / Walton
Luce / Klee
Rajaniemi / Dunn
Press Releases
RAILERS: Railers Declaw Lions in Show-Stopping Comeback Victory
LIONS: Lions fall 5-4 in overtime
Our affiliates last night
Calgary 4, NY Islanders 3 OT
Bridgeport 4, Springfield 1
In the ECHL’s North Division last night
Adirondack 4, Maine 3
Norfolk 4, Reading 1
Toledo 5, Wheeling 2
BOX SCORE
Trois-Rivières 3 0 1 0 – 4
Worcester 0 1 3 1 – 5
1st Period-1, Trois-Rivières, Jandric 8 (Cormier, Beauregard), 1:22 (PP). 2, Trois-Rivières, Hylland 12 (Jandric, Cormier), 9:20 (PP). 3, Trois-Rivières, Mianscum 7 (Martin, McLeod), 13:40. Penalties-DeMelis Wor (slashing), 1:10; Loughran Wor (slashing), 8:47; Dufort Tr (roughing), 10:05.
2nd Period-4, Worcester, Gill 4 (Klee), 16:29 (PP). Penalties-Adams-Moisan Tr (roughing), 5:59; Klee Wor (delay of game), 11:43; Yantsis Tr (holding), 15:30; Klee Wor (tripping), 19:57.
3rd Period-5, Trois-Rivières, Ducharme 7 (McLeod, Coxhead), 2:35. 6, Worcester, Gill 5 (Kopperud, Klee), 12:49 (PP). 7, Worcester, Repaci 25 (Callin, Welsh), 15:16. 8, Worcester, DeMelis 9 (Welsh, Repaci), 17:06. Penalties-Dunn Wor (hooking), 4:04; Adams-Moisan Tr (tripping), 5:42; Cormier Tr (slashing), 10:54.
1st OT Period-9, Worcester, Gill 6 (Kaplan, Klee), 1:17. Penalties-Nijhoff Tr (fighting – major), 1:17; Kaplan Wor (fighting – major, game misconduct – aggressor), 1:17.
Shots on Goal-Trois-Rivières 9-3-6-0-18. Worcester 8-6-11-3-28.
Power Play Opportunities-Trois-Rivières 2 / 5; Worcester 2 / 5.
Goalies-Trois-Rivières, Jones 13-2-5-1 (28 shots-23 saves). Worcester, Bullion 14-13-0-2 (18 shots-14 saves).
A-5,720
Referees-David Lilly (25).
Linesmen-Noah Merrow (57), Matthew Heinen (93).
—
Do you have something you loved (or hated) about the post? Head on over to the 210Sports Facebook page and leave a comment. You could comment on this post too, but fair warning, the spam filter catches lots of stuff it shouldn’t, and it might be weeks before we see your comment. While you’re there, please give the page a like and a follow.
You can also follow along and comment on the following sites:
Twitter/X (210Darryl), Twitter/X (210Sports), Bluesky, and Mastodon.
-30-
210Sports 