The Worcester Railers were hoping to put Saturday night’s debacle behind them, but they made many of the same mistakes as they did in the opening night 5-0 loss to Maine, and just as the Mariners did, the Adirondack Thunder were there to capitalize and handed Worcester a 5-3 loss.
As a confirmed fat guy, I really love cookies. And pies, and cupcakes, and donuts, and cake, and pretty much any other sweet you can find in a bakery. But do you know the one bakery item I really hate? Turnovers of every kind.
And unfortunately, the Railers make a lot of them.
It was a problem last season, and it’s already a huge problem two games in this season. It seems every big blunder Worcester makes in its own zone ends up in the back of their net. It doesn’t take a coaching genius to know that’s not a winning formula.
Adirondack’s first goal came when the puck went behind the Railers’ net, and Ross Mitton couldn’t poke it around to the other side. Thunder forward Dylan Wendt would a the feed from behind the Worcester net and deposit it past Henrik Tikkanen 2:51 into the contest. The referees took a look at it for goaltender interference, but it took this writer one view to know none took place.
Their second goal came at 11:21 of the frame on the power play–and not at 9:32 as the official score sheet currently shows–when the Railers penalty killers got caught running around their own end, and just seconds after I told perchmate and Railers Booster Club President Rich Lundin a goal was coming, Justin Taylor made it 2-0.
After a not-so-great power play opportunity late in the first, it took just six seconds into their second chance for Matt Stief to score the Railers’ first goal of the season.
At 8:04, Cole Donhauser tied the game 2-2 on a play you could not have drawn up any better.
With just over five minutes left in the middle period, Cole Fraser sent a perfect feed right to Brannon McManus at the top of the left wing faceoff circle. The issue is that Fraser is a Railers defender, while McManus is a Thunder forward. McManus would then skate in virtually unmolested on Tikkanen and score just under the crossbar.
Worcester fans didn’t feel down for very long as just eight seconds later, Anthony Callin would knot the game again.
It was another turnover that would lead to Adirondack’s game winner when Fraser couldn’t handle the behind-the-net pass from Tikkanen, and while McManus may have tripped Fraser while collecting the loose puck, neither referee called a penalty, and McManus had his second unassisted goal in as many shots.
Brian Carrabes would add an unassisted empty net goal off another Worcester turnover for the 5-3 final.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Thomas Gale (3-day IR), Riley Ginnell (14-day IR/Unknown), Jason Horvath, Tyler Kobryn, Calle Odelius, Porter Schachle (14-day IR/Unknown), and Tanner Schachle (14-day IR/Unknown). Tristan Lennox was the backup goaltender.
If you watch hockey long enough, eventually you’ll see everything happen at least once, but this writer absolutely didn’t have “sun delay” on his mind when the game started, but that’s exactly what happened for a couple of minutes early in the first period when the sun was shining through the DCU windows, through the Bud Light Zone, and on to the ice. Usually, there’s a curtain there for day games, but like many things in the opening two-game homestand, closing that curtain didn’t occur to anyone in charge. Eventually, the sun was no longer an issue, an amount of time that could have been considerably less had anyone bothered to close the curtain.
It’s the first time we’ve played Adirondack this season, so we’ll take our usual look at the roster and area connections between the two teams. Thunder netminder Henry Welsch played five seasons at UMass-Lowell, and defender Pierson Brandon played a graduate season with those same River Hawks. Forward Alexander Campbell spent his graduate year at Northeastern University, and Brian Carrabes was born in North Andover, MA, and spent two seasons at Boston University. For the Railers, Anthony Hora was born in Cheektowaga, NY, which is about as far from Glens Falls as you can get and still be in New York, but we’ll mention it anyway, and we will mention that Hora spent three seasons at SUNY-Brockport, which is also nowhere near Glens Falls. Fellow blueliner Matt Stief spent two seasons with the Thunder, going 8-53-61 in 136 games. Stief also spent four seasons at Canisius College, which is in Buffalo and also not even close to Glens Falls. Cole Donhauser was born in Kenmore, NY, which, again, is a long way away from Glens Falls. Lincoln Hatten spent a season at Army, which, compared to the other places, is reasonably close to Glens Falls at “only” 150-ish miles away. Ryan Miotto spent four years at Canisius College, which we’ve already determined isn’t near Glens Falls, and neither is Ross Mitton’s birthplace of Copiague Harbor, NY. Tanner Schachle spent two years at Long Island University, and we don’t need a map to know Long Island and Glens Falls aren’t near each other. And finally, T, J, Walsh spent two seasons at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, which, being just 50 minutes from Glens Falls, is the closest area connection on the Railers. Perhaps we might need to redefine “area” for the next teams we compare.
Saturday night saw the debut of the new ribbon board installed along the top of the lower bowl at the DCU Center. It didn’t take too long to notice that the bright white lights were reflecting off the ice. Railers COO Mike Myers said during the first intermission that they would be looking into whether, and how much, that impacted the players. There was also an issue with the LED lighting in the arena, and it was noticeably darker than usual. According to Myers, that was being tended to during the game as they worked on a solution for the levels not staying higher.
After this weekend’s games, Worcester doesn’t return to play at the DCU Center until Halloween night, and during that break, there will be some work done on the ice sheet. There was a delay in one set of decals making it to the DCU Center, so ice was made without them, and will be scraped, and the two missing ads and a couple of other under-ice features added. The “EL” that usually adorns the center ice dot, to celebrate the late Eric Lindquist, is also temporarily missing, but will be added with the other changes.
A bit more on uniform numbers, eagle-eyed reader Anthony Pellegrine noted that Jack Stander wore #74 for the Railers in the 2019-20 season. When Stander was forced into the #4 Groot specialty jersey, it somehow overwrote that for his entry on this writer’s spreadsheet. Checking that info revealed two other players that happened with, so all should be set now. Also, this season, the Railers have issued #6 and #28 for the first time in many years. Mike Cornell was the original wearer of the #6, and Connor Doherty was the only previous wearer of #28. The lowest number worn by just a single Railers player is Michael Bullion’s #32. Oddly, the next two single-wearer jerseys are #33 (Lincoln Hatten) and #34 (Evan Buitenhuis).
The three stars of the game were
1. ADK – #39 Brannon McManus
2. WOR – #44 Anthony Callin
3. ADK – #37 Dylan Wendt
The 210Sports Player of the Game was Cole Donhauser.
Even Strength Lines
Repaci / D.Callin / A.Callin
Piercey / DeMelis / Dorrington
Walsh / Miotto / Donhauser
Johnson / Hatten / Mitton
Stief / Fraser
Hora / Ferrandino
McDonald / Dunn
Press Releases
RAILERS: Railers wrap-up opening weekend with 5-3 loss to Thunder
THUNDER: Thunder defeat Railers on opening night 5-3
Our affiliates last night
No Sunday games scheduled
In the ECHL’s North Division last night
Jacksonville 3, Greensboro 0
Reading 4, Maine 0
BOX SCORE
Adirondack 2 1 2 – 5
Worcester 0 3 0 – 3
1st Period-1, Adirondack, Wendt 1 (Carrabes), 2:51. 2, Adirondack, Taylor 1 (Squires, Wendt), 9:32 (PP). Penalties-Walsh Wor (high-sticking), 9:48; Graves Adk (fighting – major), 14:41; Fraser Wor (fighting – major), 14:41; Graves Adk (instigating), 14:49.
2nd Period-3, Worcester, Stief 1 (Callin, Callin), 3:47 (PP). 4, Worcester, Donhauser 1 (Miotto), 8:04. 5, Adirondack, McManus 1 14:41. 6, Worcester, Callin 1 (DeMelis), 14:49. Penalties-Reid Adk (high-sticking), 3:41.
3rd Period-7, Adirondack, McManus 2 3:00. 8, Adirondack, Carrabes 1 18:48 (EN). Penalties-Wheeler Adk (tripping), 8:49.
Shots on Goal-Adirondack 9-11-9-29. Worcester 8-11-7-26.
Power Play Opportunities-Adirondack 1 / 1; Worcester 1 / 3.
Goalies-Adirondack, Brennan 1-0-0-0 (26 shots-23 saves). Worcester, Tikkanen 0-1-0-0 (28 shots-24 saves).
A-4,414
Referees-Sam Heidemann (22), Austin Rook (11).
Linesmen-Stephen Drain (52), Jack McQuesten (53).
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