The Worcester Railers hosted the Reading Royals on Saturday night in an All Saints’ Day match-up, but neither team was all that pius as they combined for 132 penalty minutes, including 118 in the third period alone, in the Railers’ 5-1 loss to their North Division rivals.
Worcester had one goal in the contest, by Drew Callin on a third-period power play opportunity, which at the time made the score 3-1.
It was literally the Railers’ only highlight, as despite the shots being fairly close at 32-26, in favor of the Royals, this game was all Reading.
One needs to look no deeper than a 160-second section of the middle frame to know how badly things went for Worcester. At 16:24, Carson Golder was called for slashing, and nine seconds later, Ben Meehan followed him into the box for high-sticking. Over that extended five-on-three power play, the Railers got just two shots on goal, a nice one-timer from newcomer Jesse Pulkkinen that Royals netminder Vinnie Purpura saw all the way, and a Drew Callin misfire from about 15′ in front. After another Pulkkinen shot just as the second minor expired, the Finnish defender had his stick broken as the Royals went up ice the other way, beating Tristan Lennox to make it a 3-0 game.
Most of the third-period scrum that took place during a media timeout happened while the Railers’ broadcast was away on a commercial break and the video board was showing highlights, so while the league will be able to see exactly what happened, fans who missed some or all of the action have no way of looking back on it.
The Anthony Callin major for slashing could potentially lead to a suspension, although with the lack of anyone looking injured, it likely wouldn’t be a long one. The more problematic issue is Riley Piercey’s game misconduct for leaving the player’s bench to join an altercation. By rule that carries a five-game suspension, although the league can and does look at the actual circumstances when determining its ruling. But either way, unless it’s determined that the on-ice officials got it wrong, Piercey is probably looking at an unpaid vacation coming up.
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, Porter Schachle (14-day IR/Unknown), Tanner Schachle (14-day IR/Unknown), Matt Stief (upper body), and TJ Walsh (upper body). Henrik Tikkanen was the backup goaltender.
Railers Booster Club president Rich Lundin, sound man Ryan McConville, Railers play-by-play man Tim Foley, and I had a great pregame conversation about some of the funny stories that have happened over the last few years concerning road trips and other assorted oddities during Tim’s tenure with the team. And while I know this would be a great occasion to share one of them, I won’t be doing that, as Tim is one of the traditional last Booster Club meeting guests each season, where he shares such stories. I took some notes from last night, so I suspect you’ll be hearing some of those great stories come next April/May.
I also had a pregame conversation with longtime Worcester scribe Bill Ballou about shootouts. We’re both of the mind that coaches should select defensemen to take part because, in general, defensemen don’t overthink it; they just skate in and shoot. Unfortunately, over Worcester’s pro hockey history, it doesn’t matter much, as there have been very few good shootout skaters from either side of the bench. For every defender like Denny Urban (3-4) and Connor Welsh (3-6), the list is littered with guys like Garrett Stafford (0-5) and Sena Acolatse (0-4). Overall in the city’s pro history, among skaters with five or more attempts, there are more that have zero shootout goals, seven, than those who connected on more than half their attempts, four. The number of former WorSharks with more than ten attempts with just a single goal will make your head shake now. Just imagine what it did to fans back then.
Friday night’s Halloween matchup against the Royals had that mid-week feel to it, as officially just 1,439 fans took in the game. Because the Railers use tickets out, or the number of tickets actually sold as their official number, the turstile count was a touch lower than that, but the official number is accurate enough. Playing at home on Halloween is something teams don’t want to do, and Railers COO Mike Myers was pretty open in saying the team preferred not to do that. They tried to get out of it, but the ECHL wouldn’t budge. Adirondack’s attendance number, while better, was under their average, as were AHL Springfield and AHL Hartford. Railers Senior Director of Ticket Sales Connor Haynes was also very forthcoming. “We chose to have our ticket staff focus on other games rather than Halloween night. With the number of games we had in November, we knew some games would not live up to our standards, but we had to put a majority of our focus into opening night, Railers fight cancer, our school day game, Hometown Heroes, and then some of our group focus nights as opposed to a holiday night where kids are excited about doing something other than hockey.”
If you arrive at the DCU Center coming from the north side of the building, you likely ran into some construction going on at that end of the convention center, as a new marquee sign is being installed as part of the latest upgrades to the building. In a pregame conversation Friday night with DCU Center Director of Marketing John LaHair, he mentioned to 210Sports that adding a high-def marquee there will match the video upgrades being made inside the building. He noted that the ribbon banners in the 300s will be changed soon, along with new, larger digital signs on the concourse, replacing the outdated overhead hanging signs. He also mentioned some video improvements being made over on the convention center side. Once these improvements are all completed, that should end this phase of the upgrades.
The three stars of the game were
1. REA – #9 Carson Golder
2. REA – #7 Ben Meehan
3. WOR – #77 Drew Callin
The 210Sports Player of the Game was no one.
Even Strength Lines
Donhauser / DeMelis / Repaci
Nurmi / Miotto / Hatten
Kobryn / D.Callin / Dorrington
Piercey / A.Callin / Mitton
McDonald / Fraser
Horvath / Dunn
Pulkkinen / Ferrandino
Press Releases
RAILERS: Saturday game ends with 5-1 Railers loss to Reading
ROYALS: Royals sweep Railers, set franchise best 5-0-1 start in 5-1 rout
Our affiliates last night
No games scheduled
In the ECHL’s North Division last night
Greensboro 2, Trois-Rivières 1 SO
Adirondack 3, Maine 2
Wheeling 3, Norfolk 2
BOX SCORE
Reading 2 1 2 – 5
Worcester 0 0 1 – 1
1st Period-1, Reading, Rizzo 2 (Stucker, Kulakov), 9:12. 2, Reading, Saigeon 3 (Haskins, Golder), 15:37. Penalties-Boulton Rea (fighting – major), 14:44; Hatten Wor (fighting – major), 14:44.
2nd Period-3, Reading, Golder 2 (Cook, Meehan), 18:44. Penalties-Golder Rea (slashing), 16:24; Meehan Rea (high-sticking), 16:33.
3rd Period-4, Worcester, Callin 1 (Repaci, Mitton), 4:51 (PP). 5, Reading, Boulton 1 (Devlin, Meehan), 7:40. 6, Reading, Golder 3 (Rizzo, Meehan), 11:55 (PP). Penalties-Saigeon Rea (roughing), 3:23; Swankler Rea (double – roughing), 6:24; Horvath Wor (roughing), 6:24; Piercey Wor (roughing), 6:24; Dunn Wor (slashing), 10:17; served by Dorrington Wor (bench – too many men), 11:34; Donhauser Wor (roughing), 12:14; Boulton Rea (misconduct – continuing altercation), 14:46; Cook Rea (misconduct – continuing altercation), 14:46; Kulakov Rea (fighting – major, game misconduct – secondary altercation), 14:46; Swankler Rea (roughing), 14:46; Callin Wor (slashing – major, game misconduct – slashing), 14:46; Fraser Wor (misconduct – continuing altercation), 14:46; Hatten Wor (misconduct – continuing altercation), 14:46; Horvath Wor (fighting – major, game misconduct – secondary altercation), 14:46; Piercey Wor (fighting – major, game misconduct – leaving the players bench), 14:46.
Shots on Goal-Reading 11-5-16-32. Worcester 9-9-8-26.
Power Play Opportunities-Reading 1 / 3; Worcester 1 / 3.
Goalies-Reading, Purpura 1-0-0-0 (26 shots-25 saves). Worcester, Lennox 0-3-0-0 (32 shots-27 saves).
A-2,593
Referees-Ryan Siegel (42), Alex Berard (36).
Linesmen-Antoine Bujold-Roux (72), TJ Dockery (42).
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