Friday night, the Worcester Railers headed north to Cross Insurance Arena in Portland, Maine, for the first of three in a row against the Maine Mariners this weekend, and Worcester’s inability to put the puck in the net led to a 4-0 loss. They were outshot 49-27 in the game.
With apologies to Adam Ant….
Don’t score, don’t check, what do you do?
Don’t score, don’t check, what do you do?
A stupid penalty follows
Needs to be changes coming
The two teams will head to Worcester for a Saturday night matchup on “Raiers Fight Cancer” Night, and finish the weekend at the DCU Center Sunday afternoon in Worcester’s “Autism Acceptance Day” game.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Anthony Callin (Suspended, game 1 of 4), Thomas Gale (14-day IR/Unknown), Anthony Hora (14-day IR/Unknown), Kolby Johnson (14-day IR/Unknown), Tyler Kobryn, Riley Piercey (Suspended, game 1 of 7), and TJ Walsh (14-day IR/Upper body). Henrik Tikkanen was the backup goaltender. Added to the injured list but not missing a game is Cam McDonald, who wore a full face cage Friday night after taking a puck up high in practice earlier this week.
The ECHL didn’t take long to issue supplementary discipline to the Railers for their third-period fracas against the Reading Royals, and in this writer’s professional opinion, these suspensions are equine excrement. We’ll start with Anthony Callin’s four-game suspension for slashing. I have never seen a player with no suspension history receive a suspension for that long for any physical action that did not injure an opponent. Because there’s no video of the incident, I can’t watch it to be sure, but two Reading fans I know who were at the game say that Callin did nothing but break a Royals player’s stick in half. A bonehead thing to do? Yes. Worthy of a major and any suspension? Hardly. I expected Piercey to get five games for leaving the bench, and based again on the accounts of two Reading fans, that’s all he should have gotten. Fans can rest assured I’ll have more on this topic later.
Because of a rule change from the last couple of seasons, suspended players can now be placed on reserve, provided the team has available slots. In the recent past, suspended players had to stay on the active roster, which meant teams would need to skate a player short for each player suspended. When Friday’s transactions came out Callin and Piercey were added to reserve, and a quick message to the Railers confirmed the rule change.
There were lots of transactions involving the Railers this week, starting with GM Nick Tuzzolino sending defenseman Cole Fraser to Cincinnati in exchange for future considerations. Whispers are that Fraser wasn’t happy here, so moving him along was probably the right thing to do for both the team and the player. Fraser was expensive against the salary cap, and for someone making that much and not wanting to be 100% here, trading him and bringing in a hungrier, cheaper, younger player is the correct route to go. On Thursday, the New York Islanders reassigned defender Jesse Pulkkinen from Worcester to Bridgeport. Pulkkinen was arguably the Railers’ best player last weekend, so that’s a big loss. To replace Pulkkinen, Tuzzolino acquired Michael Suda from Savannah in exchange for, you guessed it, future considerations. In a couple of odd transactions on Thursday, Tuzzolino signed defender Noah Massie, late of the Trois-Rivières Lions, but then released him later in the day.
In a transaction with some Worcester ties, former Railers forward Andrei Bakanov was released by the Norfolk Admirals on Wednesday and wasn’t claimed on waivers. Norfolk was the fifth ECHL team for the Russian forward since the start of last season, and at some point, teams will stop giving him chances. We’ll see if that point is now. In 157 ECHL games, Bakanov is 33-26-59 with a minus-29 rating, but was pointless this season. You can take that last line any way you wish.
The three stars of the game were
1. MNE – #23 Max Andreev
2. MNE – #9 Brooklyn Kalmikov
3. MNE – #33 Luke Cavallin
The 210Sports Player of the Game was no one.
Even Strength Lines
Nurmi / Miotto / Repaci
Donhauser / Dorrington / Hatten
Ginnell / D.Callin / Mitton
P.Schachle / DeMelis / T.Schachle
McDonals / Ferrandino
Stief / Suda
Horvath / Dunn
Press Releases
RAILERS: Railers lose weekend opener 4-0 to Mariners
MARINERS: Andreev’s hat trick propels Mariners into first place
Our affiliates last night
Minnesota 5, NY Islanders 2
Bridgeport 6, Springfield 2
In the ECHL’s North Division last night
Norfolk 4, Adirondack 1
Wheeling 3, Greensboro 2 SO
BOX SCORE
Worcester 0 0 0 – 0
Maine 1 1 2 – 4
1st Period-1, Maine, Kalmikov 4 (Andreev, Thompson), 0:58 (PP). Penalties-Schachle Wor (hooking), 0:34; Perreault Mne (cross-checking), 12:25; Andreev Mne (hooking), 15:54.
2nd Period-2, Maine, Andreev 3 (Johansson, Kalmikov), 19:43. Penalties-Callin Wor (interference), 8:25; Donhauser Wor (hooking), 12:35; Andreev Mne (slashing), 15:54.
3rd Period-3, Maine, Andreev 4 (Kalmikov, Thompson), 1:40 (PP). 4, Maine, Andreev 5 (Kalmikov, Hudson), 16:48 (EN). Penalties-Donhauser Wor (roughing), 1:20; Dunn Wor (boarding), 6:45; Callin Wor (delay of game), 6:51; Andreev Mne (tripping), 10:07; Miotto Wor (fighting – major), 13:43; Massicotte Mne (instigating, fighting – major), 13:43; DiPaolo Mne (holding), 18:12.
Shots on Goal-Worcester 6-11-10-27. Maine 15-22-12-49.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 0 / 6; Maine 2 / 6.
Goalies-Worcester, Lennox 0-4-0-0 (48 shots-45 saves). Maine, Cavallin 5-1-0-0 (27 shots-27 saves).
A-4,679
Referees-Jamie Pavia (26), -.
Linesmen-Shane Kanaly (74), Noah Merrow (57).
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