The Worcester Railers, playing “must win” hockey as they attempt to qualify for the ECHL playoffs, dug themselves a first-period hole before scoring four straight goals against the Adirondack Thunder and then managed to hold on for a 5-4 win at the Cool Insuring Arena Friday night in Glens Falls, New York.
The Thunder are playing for nothing but pride and future roster spots, which can lead to dangerous games for teams still in the playoff hunt. Adding to that the struggles the Railers have had at Cool Insuring Arena over the years, and Friday’s game suddenly became a lot tougher.
Worcester not exactly playing sharp hockey in the opening twenty minutes certainly didn’t help any either.
It took just 2:03 into the game for the Railers to get one past Thunder goaltender Jeremy Brodeur, who has been known to stymie players in Worcester jerseys over the past couple of seasons. Jordan Kaplan and Justin Gill had the assists on the play.
Two minutes and thirty seconds later, Isaiah Fox would knot the score 1-1 when the Railers completely lost track of him in the defensive zone, and Fox was able to beat Hugo Ollas glove side. After a needless tripping penalty by Cole Donhauser while the teams were skating four-on-four, Dennis Busby needed just 13 seconds of the four-on-three to give Adirondack the 2-1 lead at 12:07.
Grant Loven made it 3-1 Adirondack on a two-on-four rush with a shot that beat Ollas blocker side at 14:33. It’s a shot that goaltenders at this level need to make a save on.
Matias Rajaniemi then got one back for Worcester on an odd play as he picked up a loose puck at center ice, skated in three on two, and beat Brodeur low blocker side at 15:24. Why was it odd? Well, while Rajaniemi was streaking into the Thunder zone, this was going on behind him.
During “Chalk Talk” a couple weeks ago, this writer asked Head Coach Nick Tuzzolino and COO Mike Myers about how it seems the Railers always end up on the short end of 50/50 penalty calls. Both were very professional with their answers, as one would expect, but reading between the lines, you could see that both agreed and were frustrated by it. It happened again early in the second period when Connor Welsh was harassed after the whistle by Thunder forward Josh Filmon, but somehow, after the scrum, only Welsh ended up in the box.
Worcester got the last laugh in that case, though, as Anthony Callin potted an unassisted shorthanded goal at 3:36 to tie it 3-3.
At 13:27 of the frame, Donhauser would make up for his early tripping penalty with a nice goal as he forced his way to the net and beat Brodeur, again to the low blocker side, to give the Railers their original lead back. Griffin Luce and Callin had the helpers.
With time winding down in the middle frame, Cam McDonald put one on net that Brodeur looked to have covered, but watching the video, it seems that referee Emile Charron can still see the puck and let the play continue. Eventually, McDonald was able to pry it loose, and Callin put it in with 42 seconds to go and the 5-3 lead.
This goal is currently scored as unassisted, which would give Callin five on the season and a new Railers franchise single-season record, but when it’s all said and done, McDonald should get a helper, setting Callin back to four unassisted tallies on the season and just a tie for the franchise mark.
In the third period, the Railers played a bit of rope-a-dope, and despite a Dan Ebrahim extra-attacker goal at 17:23, were able to hold on for the 5-4 win. It was Callin’s sixth game-winning goal of the season, tying him with Anthony Repaci (2021-22) for the franchise’s single-season record.
The win, plus Reading’s loss, pushes the Railers’ magic number to clinch an ECHL playoff berth at 10.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Alec Cicero, Ryan Dickinson (3-day IR), JD Dudek (IR/unknown), Kabore Dunn, Riley Ginnell (IR/unknown), Kolby Johnson (IR/upper body), and Matt Ustaski (IR/unknown). Michael Bullion was the backup goaltender.
Friday was the 21st anniversary of the last NHL tie as the Carolina Hurricanes and Florida Panthers deadlocked 6-6 on April 4, 2001. Brad Fast scored the tying goal for Carolina with 2:26 left in regulation. In one of those oddities, it was Fast’s only NHL goal in his only NHL game played. After the NHL lockout that erased the 2004-05 season, the league added a shootout to determine the winner for games tied at the end of overtime. Former IceCats’ defenseman Mike Van Ryn had three assists in the game for the Hurricanes, while then-future WorSharks defender Mathieu Biron added a helper for Carolina. Van Ryan also led all skaters with 30:43 played over the 65-minute game.
The saga of former Railers forward Andrei Bakanov continues as the Moscow, Russia native has worn out his welcome in a fifth ECHL city this week with his release by the Norfolk Admirals. Bakanov has scored with four different teams this campaign, with only his brief stop in Fort Wayne not resulting in the goal light going on. He has a pro career high 17 goals in 55 games this season, so the issue obviously is Bakanov himself. He’s young, just 22 years old, and obviously has some growing up to do if he wants to make pro hockey his career.
I was going to write a whole section about the following, but since there wasn’t more than what I tweeted to add, we’ll just add the tweet.
The three stars of the game were
1. WOR – Anthony Callin (#44)
2. WOR – Matthew Kopperud (#18)
3. ADK – Isaiah Fox (#27)
The 210Sports Player of the Game was Cole Donhauser.
Even Strength Lines
Donhauser / Callin / Repaci
Kopperud / Kaplan / Gill
Kobryn / DeMelis / Loughran
Schachle / Mahshie / Hatten
Welsh / Luce
McDonald / Klee
Rajaniemi / Walton
Press Releases
RAILERS: Four Unanswered Goals Power Railers to 5-4 Win Over Thunder
THUNDER: Railers Hang On To Defeat Thunder 5-4
Our affiliates last night
NY Islanders 3, Minnesota 1
In the ECHL’s North Division last night
Wheeling 6, Reading 3
Trois-Rivieres 6, Maine 4
Iowa 4, Norfolk 3 OT
BOX SCORE
Worcester 2 3 0 – 5
Adirondack 3 0 1 – 4
1st Period-1, Worcester, Kopperud 16 (Kaplan, Gill), 2:03. 2, Adirondack, Fox 3 (Smith, Pierce), 5:33. 3, Adirondack, Busby 1 (Filmon, Carrabes), 12:07 (PP). 4, Adirondack, Loven 10 (Rødne, Ergang), 14:33. 5, Worcester, Rajaniemi 4 15:24. Penalties-Mahshie Wor (fighting – major), 9:32; Gervais Adk (fighting – major), 9:32; Kaplan Wor (roughing), 10:18; Conroy Adk (roughing), 10:18; Donhauser Wor (tripping), 11:54; Walton Wor (fighting – major), 15:24; Fox Adk (instigating, fighting – major), 15:24; Conroy Adk (slashing), 19:12.
2nd Period-6, Worcester, Callin 22 3:36 (SH). 7, Worcester, Donhauser 10 (Luce, Callin), 13:27. 8, Worcester, Callin 23 19:18. Penalties-Welsh Wor (roughing), 3:20; Hatten Wor (tripping), 16:58.
3rd Period-9, Adirondack, Ebrahim 1 (Loven, Filmon), 17:23. Penalties-Villegas Adk (hooking), 5:45.
Shots on Goal-Worcester 12-18-5-35. Adirondack 9-6-9-24.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 0 / 3; Adirondack 1 / 3.
Goalies-Worcester, Ollas 12-15-1-2 (24 shots-20 saves). Adirondack, Brodeur 10-10-0-1 (35 shots-30 saves).
A-4,457
Referees-Marc-Olivier Phaneuf (23), Emile Charron (43).
Linesmen-Maxime Bedard (65), Trevor Waite (73).
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