On Friday night, for the first time this season, the echoes of “O Canada” rang through the rafters of the DCU Center as the Worcester Railers hosted the Trois-Rivières Lions in game one of two this weekend between the ECHL North Division rivals, and 12 of the 18 Railers skaters hit the scoresheet with points in Worcester’s 6-4 victory. Goaltender Tristan Lennox picked up his first win in almost two full injury-filled seasons, making 30 saves on 34 shots.
While this writer said after Sunday’s 4-2 Railers loss to Maine, there are no moral victories in hockey, the game showed Worcester was perhaps finally on the right track, as the team, despite the loss, showed they could play 60 minutes of decent hockey. And that track went right through the Lions, who for most of the game had no idea what train had hit them.
It had been seven games since Worcester opened the scoring in a contest, but Cole Donhauser broke that streak with a power play goal to give the Railers a 1-0 lead at 4:21. Cam McDonald and Matt Stief have the helpers, but perhaps that McDonald blast hit Lincoln Hatten on the way by. Hatten at least gets an “atta boy” for the screen.
One thing Worcester has to do is stop taking silly penalties, and they had two in a row after the Donhauser strike, with Kolby Johnson and Tanner Schachle both heading to the sin bin for no good reason.
Luckily, it seems Trois-Rivières has the same issue as Worcester found themselves on an extended two-man advantage midway through the opening frame, and Matt Demelis made it 2-0 at 13:49. Riley Ginnell and Calle Odelius picked up points on the play.
In the waning seconds of the frame, Worcester once again found themselves shorthanded because of a silly penalty when Michael Suda got the automatic two for delay of game. The Lions couldn’t take advantage.
When Railers Booster Club President Rich Lundin and I saw the Drew Callin goal live at 9:02 of the middle period, we both were glad there was no offside review in the ECHL because we were convinced that Donhauser was in the zone early. We were wrong, and linesman Sam Schildkraut was right. It was onside, and it was 3-0.
Cédric Desruisseaux got the Lions on the board at 11:10, but Hatten made it a three-goal lead again at 13:29 with a solid backhander off the rebound of a Ryan Miotto shot. Anthony Hora had the secondary assist.
With 70 seconds to go in the middle frame, Ross Mitton made it 5-1 Railers with a nice partial breakaway goal. Miotto and Jesse Nurmi currently have assists on the play.
In the third period, Worcester rested on their laurels a bit, and Trois-Rivières took full advantage and turned it into a hockey game, with, of course, some help from a silly penalty.
The first came with Johnson in the box, or more correctly, the elder Schachle in the sin bin, with Johnson also getting a game misconduct. It was originally announced as unsportsmanlike conduct. Many around this writer’s perch were confused as nothing out of the ordinary appeared to have happened at the last stoppage of play.
After the game, the penalties were changed.
It turns out, based on the accounts posted in the Railers Booster Club Facebook group, as far-fetched as it sounds, it’s exactly what happened. Johnson will undoubtedly be hearing from the ECHL at some point Saturday.
Tommy Cormier scored on that power play to make it 5-2, and
Morgan Adams-Moisan followed with an unassisted tally at 17:13 to make it 5-3.
Riley Ginnell found the empty net with 2:02 to go to make it 6-3.
Mark Estapa added a Lions goal at 18:19, but that was as close as Trois-Rivières would get.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Anthony Callin (Suspended, game 4 of 4), Michael Ferrandino (3-day IR), Thomas Gale (14-day IR/Unknown), Tyler Kobryn, Riley Piercey (Suspended, game 4 of 7), Porter Schachle (14-day IR/Unknown), and TJ Walsh (14-day IR/Upper body). Henrik Tikkanen was the backup goaltender.
For this week’s transactions, Railers GM Nick Tuzzolino acquired the 6’7″ son of Ulf Samuelsson, Adam Samuelsson, from Tahoe in exchange for the ever-popular “future considerations”. For those unfamiliar with the elder Samuelsson, I suggest taking a look-see. I may need to dig out my Cam Neely sweater should he ever come to the DCU Center. The younger Samuelsson is a stay-at-home defenseman who is, as you would expect, solid on the blueline. To make room for him, Tuzzolino released Kabore Dunn. While it seems Tuzzolino couldn’t find a trade partner for the Mill Bay, BC native, I do expect Dunn to be able to eventually latch on to another ECHL team in the future.
With it being the first time the Railers and Trois-Rivières have met this season, we’ll take our usual look at the teams for roster and area connections. For the Lions, it’s only goaltender Vincent Duplessis, who played three seasons at Boston University. For Worcester, goaltender Thomas Gale was born in Kirkland, QC, which is about a two-hour drive southwest from Trois-Rivières. There is also a rumor that Railers broadcaster Tim Foley once contemplated getting French dressing for his salad, but we will probably not look into that any further.
On Thursday, the ECHL announced its Hall of Fame class for 2026, which included goaltender Riley Gill, who played one not-so-memorable period for the WorSharks on November 28, 2010, where he allowed two goals on ten shots in a third-period relief stint during a 5-2 loss to Manchester. Gill was also Alex Stalock’s backup for the four previous games. Per the ECHL press release, Gill ranks third all-time in ECHL history with 21 shutouts while ranking eighth with 147 career wins and 13th among goaltenders with 245 career appearances over nine seasons with Victoria, Kalamazoo, Reading, and Allen. He saved some of his best work for the postseason, where he is tied for first all-time among goaltenders with 90 appearances and ranks second with 53 wins and eight shutouts. He backstopped Reading to the 2013 Kelly Cup title – earning Playoff Most Valuable Player honors – and Allen to back-to-back championships in 2015 and 2016. Jeff Campbell, Jason Christie, and Mark Turner were the other announced inductees.
Also on Thursday, the Professional Hockey Players’ Association (PHPA) sent out an open letter to ECHL fans, saying they were “writing to share an honest update about the state of our collective bargaining negotiations with the ECHL.” This caused a “the sky is falling” moment from a young, inexperienced Railers fan on the pages of both major Railers Facebook groups, and then he doubled down by asking an AI bot what the open letter meant. To say it was comical might be an understatement. So, here’s the skinny on this. Could the PHPA strike? Of course. Are they going to? I’d say, right now, it’s highly unlikely. First off, that letter is one that sounds like it’s getting ready to defend the ECHL locking out the players. Now, is a lockout going to happen? Again, it could, but right now, it’s very unlikely. As for why the PHPA probably isn’t headed to a job action, the answer is pretty simple if you know how the ECHL operates. If the PHPA strikes during the season, the vast majority of the players lose their access to their assigned apartment/house, as housing is paid for by the team. Also, heading home from their team’s city becomes an issue because the teams are responsible for all reasonable costs in player travel to and from the team’s home city, and if the players are on strike, the teams won’t be required to pay that. Plus, then players would likely need to pay their own way to get back to the city when the strike is over. Those are just the easy reasons why a strike is unlikely. There’s a lot more based on stuff going on behind the scenes. So, to sum up, is a PHPA job action possible? Sure. But don’t bet on it happening just yet. On Friday, the ECHL responded to the open letter with a much more polished missive, and with that it all but eliminates the thought of them locking out the players.
The three stars of the game were
1. WOR – #37 Matt DeMelis
2. WOR – #29 Cole Donhauser
3. WOR – #9 Riley Ginnell
The 210Sports Player of the Game was Lincoln Hatten.
Even Strength Lines
Donhauser / D.Callin / Repaci
Ginnell / DeMelis / Hatten
Nurmi / Miotto / Mitton
Johnson / Dorrington / T.Schachle
McDonald / Suda
Odelius / Hora
Stief / Samuelsson
Press Releases
RAILERS: Railers tame Lions in 6-4 win to open weekend
LIONS: None available at posting time
Our affiliates last night
NY Islanders 3, Utah 2
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 5, Bridgeport 3
In the ECHL’s North Division last night
Wheeling 5, Maine 1
Savannah 5, Norfolk 2
Adirondack 4, Reading 3 OT
Greensboro 2, Tahoe 0
BOX SCORE
Trois-Rivières 0 1 3 – 4
Worcester 2 3 1 – 6
1st Period-1, Worcester, Donhauser 3 (McDonald, Stief), 4:21 (PP). 2, Worcester, DeMelis 2 (Ginnell, Odelius), 13:49 (PP). Penalties-Estapa Tr (tripping), 2:23; Johnson Wor (boarding), 4:53; Schachle Wor (cross-checking), 7:42; Louis-Jean Tr (hooking), 11:29; Fuller Tr (interference), 12:58; Kidney Tr (unsportsmanlike conduct), 12:58; Suda Wor (delay of game), 19:42.
2nd Period-3, Worcester, Callin 3 (Repaci, McDonald), 9:02. 4, Trois-Rivières, Desruisseaux 2 (Beauregard, Dion), 11:10. 5, Worcester, Hatten 1 (Miotto, Hora), 13:29. 6, Worcester, Mitton 1 (Miotto, Nurmi), 18:50. Penalties-Ginnell Wor (slashing), 13:47.
3rd Period-7, Trois-Rivières, Cormier 1 (Martin), 14:50 (PP). 8, Trois-Rivières, Adams-Moisan 2 17:13. 9, Worcester, Ginnell 1 (Hora), 17:58. 10, Trois-Rivières, Estapa 3 (Dunlap, Mianscum), 18:19. Penalties-Mianscum Tr (slashing), 3:50; O’Rourke Tr (holding), 6:58; Odelius Wor (unsportsmanlike conduct), 7:16; Johnson Wor (delay of game, game misconduct – puck shot into spectator area), 14:09.
Shots on Goal-Trois-Rivières 12-8-14-34. Worcester 13-10-5-28.
Power Play Opportunities-Trois-Rivières 1 / 6; Worcester 2 / 6.
Goalies-Trois-Rivières, Gaudreau 3-1-0-2 (19 shots-15 saves); Duplessis 0-1-0-0 (9 shots-7 saves). Worcester, Lennox 1-4-0-0 (34 shots-30 saves).
A-2,320
Referees-David Lilly (25), -.
Linesmen-Sam Schildkraut (46), Noah Merrow (57).
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