The Worcester Railers opened their 2025-26 campaign with a Saturday evening matchup with the Maine Mariners at the DCU Center in front of 6,511 hopeful fans, but despite a good opening frame, the Railers just couldn’t get out of their own way over the final 40 minutes as they stumbled to a 5-0 loss.
It marked the first time a Worcester pro team was shut out in its season opener, and it was the fifth time a Worcester pro team allowed five or more goals in an opener. All five of those teams lost, and four would eventually miss the playoffs. The fifth, the 2008-09 WorSharks, went on to the postseason after allowing six goals in the opening loss to Lowell.
It was more of the same problems that plagued the Railers last season, as once again they continuously failed to get shots on goal off odd-man rushes, and generally missed the net by wide margins on many of their better scoring opportunities. Of their 26 credited shots on goal, Mariners goaltender Luke Cavallin was tested maybe twice.
The Railers are supposed to be a grit-filled team, which we didn’t see much of Saturday night until it was far too late, so killing off some penalties is to be expected. What isn’t acceptable is having the first four penalties of a game called against you, with two of them being hooking calls and the other two being the automatic delay of game minors for shooting the puck over the glass.
You could argue that referee Alexandre Gagne was completely fooled on the original hooking call on Kabore Dunn. After watching it on video, he absolutely was, and the call on Drew Callin was about as ticky-tack as you can get, but both of those calls are the kind of thing a team can’t control. Dunn and Anthony Hora firing the puck out of play when neither was under hard pressure are mental mistakes defensemen simply can’t make, and that is something a team can control.
Tristan Lennox was Worcester’s starter between the pipes, and he kept his team in it for 45 minutes with pretty much no help. The last 15 minutes, he got absolutely no help at all, and that’s how we ended up at a 5-0 final score.
Hopefully, it was all just opening night jitters, because if it wasn’t, this could end up being another long season for local hockey fans.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Michael Ferrandino, Thomas Gale (3-day IR), Riley Ginnell (14-day IR/Unknown), Jason Horvath, Tyler Kobryn, Porter Schachle (14-day IR/Unknown), and Tanner Schachle (14-day IR/Unknown). Henrik Tikkanen was the backup goaltender.
There were two fights in the contest, with Kolby Johnson taking on Ty Cheveldayoff seconds after Xander Lamppa scored to make it 2-0 Maine. After the fight, a strap of some sort that belonged to Johnson ended up with Cheveldayoff, so the Mariner forward attempted to toss it over to Johnson, missing so badly that it drew laughs from both players and from those in the PA booth. A fan retrieved the item and handed it through the side door to Johnson.
Newcomer Cole Fraser earned himself an instigator minor and misconduct for challenging Zachary Massicotte after Massicotte threw a big but essentially harmless check on Anthony Callin. It was a well-appreciated “set the tone” action from the veteran Fraser in a 4-0 game, even if it does lighten his wallet a little bit.
It was an unplanned color-on-color matchup Saturday night, with Maine wearing their gold third jerseys and Worcester sporting their blues. The Railers’ white jerseys weren’t ready yet, so they needed to go with blue. Maine also didn’t have their white set ready, because they weren’t planned to be needed, but did have their gold thirds available and ready to go, so both teams went with darker jerseys. The Railers tweeted a few pictures, and both jerseys looked sharp on the ice.
When Cole Fraser took to the ice Saturday night, he became the first Worcester professional to wear uniform #74 in a regular-season or playoff game. Anthony Cortese wore the number in a preseason game against Maine in training camp in 2019, but that doesn’t count for records. In another new number for Worcester pro hockey, Drew Callin is the first to wear #77 in a game. The highest number worn by an IceCats player playing in a game was #57, by Jan Horacek. Equipment manager turned EBUG J.C. Ihrig wore #93 on some occasions, but never played. For the WorSharks, Brandon Mashinter’s #53 was the highest number worn. And as a trivia tidbit, the lowest number available that’s never been worn in a regular-season or playoff game for a Worcester pro team? That would be #52.
This was the first meeting with Maine this season, so as we do, we’ll take a look at some roster and area connections between the two teams. Mariners netminder Brad Arvanitis was born in Holliston, MA, and spent two seasons at UMass-Amherst and three at Babson College. Defender Philip Beaulieu played 39 games for the Railers in the 2022-23 season, going 0-17-17 with a minus-18 rating. Fellow blueliner Ty Gallagher spent three seasons at Boston University. For forwards, Robert Cronin hails from Plymouth, MA, Wyllum Deveaux played five seasons at Harvard, and Liam Gorman was born in Boston, MA, and played a graduate year at UMass-Amherst. Worcester defenseman Kabore Dunn played 11 games for the University of Maine over two seasons, notching two assists. Fellow defender Jason Horvath has played 66 games with the Mariners over three seasons, going 1-16-17 over that time. Forward Ross Mitton played a graduate year at the University of Maine, going 4-7-11 with a plus-10 rating over 32 games.
Let the record show that the last training camp cut for Worcester this year was former Railers forward Nick Pennucci, who will be making his way back to Quad City of the SPHL. Pennucci, son and namesake of the late, longtime Buffone Ice Arena rink manager Nick Pennucci, was let go after the Islanders organization sent three players to Worcester after the first wave of camp cuts. The Pennuccis used to sit in front of this writer in the WorSharks days, so I have known the family for years, but hadn’t seen the younger Nick in quite some time. He came over during the player Meet and Greet at Off the Railers to chat and reminisce about the IceCats and WorSharks days. I needled him a little bit by calling him “Nickie” a couple of times, as his dad would do, but the young man, still sporting a shiner from his preseason fight with Dilan Savenkov, laughed and took it in stride. I wouldn’t be shocked if he ends up back on the Railers roster at some point this upcoming season.
One more camp note to make as the Railers suspended forward Darien Kielb, who signed with Worcester over the summer but ultimately decided to go back to the EIHL’s Glasgow Clan. Kielb was likely to be no more than a depth defender for the Railers, so his leaving may have caused a minor headache for GM Nick Tuzolino at the time, but in the long run, it was hardly a small bump in the road.
The three stars of the game were
1. MNE – #33 Luke Cavallin
2. MNE – #9 Brooklyn Kalmikov
3. MNE – #14 Jacob Perreault
The 210Sports Player of the Game was no one.
Even Strength Lines
Repaci / D.Callin / A.Callin
Piercey / DeMelis / Dorrington
Walsh / Miotto / Mitton
Donhauser / Hatten / Johnson
Odelius / Fraser
Stief / Hora
McDonald / Dunn
Press Releases
RAILERS: Railers drop season-opener to Maine 5-0
MARINERS: Mariners blank Worcester 5-0 to open season
Our affiliates last night
NY Islanders 5, Ottawa 4
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 6, Bridgeport 3
In the ECHL’s North Division last night
Wheeling 5, Cincinnati 3
Jacksonville 2, Greensboro 1 OT
South Carolina 2, Norfolk 1
BOX SCORE
Maine 0 1 4 – 5
Worcester 0 0 0 – 0
1st Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Dunn Wor (hooking), 17:10; Hora Wor (delay of game), 19:59.
2nd Period-1, Maine, Kalmikov 1 (Gallagher, Perreault), 17:55 (PP). Penalties-Callin Wor (hooking), 16:56; Dunn Wor (delay of game), 18:01; McCallum Mne (holding), 18:55.
3rd Period-2, Maine, Lamppa 1 (Gallagher, Massicotte), 5:49. 3, Maine, Perreault 1 (Kalmikov), 10:16. 4, Maine, Thompson 1 (Cheveldayoff, Hudson), 13:09. 5, Maine, Andreev 1 (Element, Cheveldayoff), 16:39 (SH). Penalties-Cheveldayoff Mne (fighting – major), 5:52; Johnson Wor (fighting – major), 5:52; Massicotte Mne (fighting – major), 13:20; Fraser Wor (instigating, fighting – major, misconduct), 13:20; Element Mne (tripping), 14:14.
Shots on Goal-Maine 11-15-10-36. Worcester 11-5-10-26.
Power Play Opportunities-Maine 1 / 5; Worcester 0 / 2.
Goalies-Maine, Cavallin 1-0-0-0 (26 shots-26 saves). Worcester, Lennox 0-1-0-0 (36 shots-31 saves).
A-6,511
Referees-Alexandre Gagne (44), -.
Linesmen-Conor Foley (86), Noah Merrow (57).
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