Suppose anyone is looking for a couple of the many reasons the Worcester Railers have failed to make the postseason over the last several seasons. In that case, they need to look no further than Friday night’s 2-1 shootout loss to the Reading Royals at the DCU Center.
Both Reading’s Keith Petruzzelli and the Railers Henrik Tikkanen were amazing, each allowing just a single goal over the 67 minutes of hockey played in front of them.
But just as they helped Tikkanen on the defensive end, Worcester also helped Petruzzelli in the Reading zone by, once again, not taking advantage of any break they got. The Railers’ 1.6 goals per game are last in the ECHL, as is their anemic shooting percentage of 5.3%. Worcester’s power play is tied for 27th in the ECHL with, oddly enough, Reading at 7.1%.
And we all know that shootouts are essentially a waste of time for the Railers.
Both goals in the contest were scored in the second period, with the Royals’ Kyle Haskins connecting 54 seconds into the middle frame in kind of a “right place, right time” type of goal. You know, the kind the Railers don’t score enough of.
Max Dorrington knotted the game 1-1 at 6:02 when he took a feed from TJ Walsh, skated through traffic, and threw a nifty backhander that beat Petruzzelli.
The Railers didn’t tweet any of the big saves Tikkanen made, but trust this writer, he made a boatload of them.
It stayed the 1-1 score through overtime thanks to the goaltenders, and in the shootout, Reading’s Carson Golder was the only one of the five shooters to light the lamp.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Thomas Gale (14-day IR/Unknown), Riley Ginnell (14-day IR/Unknown), Anthony Hora (3-day IR), Kolby Johnson, Tyler Kobryn, Porter Schachle (14-day IR/Unknown), Tanner Schachle (14-day IR/Unknown), and Matt Stief (upper body). Tristan Lennox was the backup goaltender. On Thursday, defenseman Calle Odelius was reassigned from Worcester to Bridgeport by the NY Islanders, while forward Jesse Nurmi and defender Jesse Pulkkinen were reassigned by the Islanders from Bridgeport to the Railers.
Forward TJ Walsh went down awkwardly in the second period after a check right in front of the Worcester penalty box door, and skated off slowly and went down the tunnel. After a long while, he eventually returned to the bench but did not take a shift, and then didn’t come out of the dressing room for the third period.
Stealing an old theme from former Telegram and Gazette reporter Bill Ballou, a quick trivia question: can you name the last three Railers to score a shootout goal? The answer is below.
With it being the first time Worcester and Reading play each other this season, we’ll take a look at some roster and area connections between the two teams. Royals netminder Keith Petruzzelli was born in Wilbraham, MA, and his goaltending partner, Vinnie Purpura, spent two seasons at Boston University. Defender Artyom Kulakov played 68 games over two seasons with the Railers, and fellow blueliner Jack Page played four seasons at Boston University. Reading forward Liam Devlin was born in Needham, MA, and Patrick Moynihan hails from Millis, MA. Railers forward Tyler Kobryn played two games with Reading in 2022-23, notching an assist.
As we expected, an assist to Ross Mitton was added to Ryan Miotto’s game-tying goal last Saturday. That goal now reads “4, Worcester, Miotto 1 (Piercey, Mitton), 2:20.” That makes helpers in two games in a row for the Copiague Harbor, NY native. He and Railers captain Anthony Repaci are the only two Worcester skaters to be credited with points in consecutive games.
The ban hammer came quickly for Reading forward Jacob Frasca as the league suspended him on Monday for five games for leaving the penalty box during an altercation in the Royals’ 8-7 overtime win over Greensboro from last Saturday. Jacob was part of an altercation in the Greensboro zone with Gargoyles captain Logan Nelson, with a linesman escorting the Royals forward to the penalty box. Moments later, Jacob’s older brother Jordan squared off against Nelson and got beaten up for his troubles. As the camera pans to follow Nelson skating to the penalty boxes, Jacob Frasca can be seen back on the ice in front of the Greensboro net. Despite not having a penalty called against him, Jacob Frasca was ultimately ejected for leaving the penalty bench. Frasca missed Friday’s game against the Railers, just as he will for Saturday’s. He’ll also sit out Sunday’s Royals’ game in Maine, and next weekend’s games vs Trois-Rivières. The news wasn’t great for Jordan Frasca either, as he was added to the 14-day IR earlier this week.
Trivia answer: Connor Welsh was the easy one here, as he was the only Railers skater to score in the shootout last season. The retired Jack Quinlivan is the next most recent, scoring the game-winner in the seventh round against Fort Wayne on January 20, 2024. Technically, third is the also retired Keeghan Howdeshell, scoring the game-winner against Trois-Rivières on January 5, 2024, but we would have also accepted Ashton Calder, who, if you catch the theme here, is also retired, as he scored in the first round of that same game.
In that light, today we’re starting a new thing here on 210Sports as we’ll keep a running total of the points the Railers lost that they probably should have gotten, and the extra points divisional opponents gained by the Railers not getting them. Now, obviously, this is subjective, and I reserve the right to go back to older games and change my way of thinking on them. After five games, the Railers would be -3, not getting two points a couple of Sundays ago against Adirondack with two third-period turnovers, and one point from last night by their inept power play chances and no goals in the shootout. That makes Reading +1, and we’re going to give Adirondack just a +1 because that Sunday game, without Worcester’s mistakes, was likely headed to overtime.
The three stars of the game were
1. REA – #80 Keith Petruzzelli
2. REA – #9 Carson Golder
3. WOR – #39 Henrik Tikkanen
The 210Sports Player of the Game was Max Dorrington.
Even Strength Lines
Donhauser / A.Callin / Repaci
Piercey / Miotto / Mitton
Walsh / D.Callin / Dorrington
Nurmi / DeMelis / Hatten
McDonald / Fraser
Horvath / Dunn
Pulkkinen / Ferrandino
Press Releases
RAILERS: Worcester drops 2-1 shootout decision to Reading
ROYALS: Petruzzelli stops 27, Royals earn fourth straight victory in shootout over Railers 2-1
Our affiliates last night
NY Islanders 3, Washington 1
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 3, Bridgeport 2
In the ECHL’s North Division last night
Maine 2, Adirondack 1 SO
Trois-Rivières 6, Greensboro 3
BOX SCORE
Reading 0 1 0 0 – 2
Worcester 0 1 0 0 – 1
1st Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Piercey Wor (interference), 11:52; Golder Rea (slashing), 17:16.
2nd Period-1, Reading, Haskins 3 (Capone, Meehan), 0:54. 2, Worcester, Dorrington 1 (Callin, Walsh), 6:02. Penalties-Michel Rea (hooking), 1:28; Burke Rea (bench – too many men), 2:41; Butcher Rea (tripping), 10:56.
3rd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-No Penalties
1st OT Period- No Scoring.Penalties-No Penalties
Shootout – Reading 1 (Golder G, Burke NG), Worcester 0 (Nurmi NG, DeMelis NG, Miotto NG).
Shots on Goal-Reading 5-9-12-3-1-30. Worcester 8-11-5-4-0-28.
Power Play Opportunities-Reading 0 / 1; Worcester 0 / 4.
Goalies-Reading, Petruzzelli 3-0-0-0 (28 shots-27 saves). Worcester, Tikkanen 1-1-0-1 (29 shots-28 saves).
A-1,439
Referees-Emile Charron (43), -.
Linesmen-Noah Merrow (57), Sam Schildkraut (46).
—
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 
Leave a comment