The Worcester Railers hosted the expansion Greensboro Gargoyles for the first time at the DCU Center Saturday night, and had numerous chances to light the lamp more often, but just couldn’t get the right bounce all game as they dropped a 4-2 contest.
It was the Gargoyles that would get on the board first with a power play goal at 5:17. With Lincoln Hatten sitting in the box for a trip that looked ticky-tacky live but on video shows to absolutely be a penalty, Ryan Richardson wristed a laser past the glove of Tristan Lennox to make it 1-0.
Hatten made up for his goof with an NHL-quality tip of Michael Suda’s wrister from the point to tie the game 1-1 at 15:25. Matt DeMelis had the secondary assist.
The tie didn’t last all that long as Trevor Zins retook the lead for Greensboro with a hard shot through traffic that beat a screened Lennox at 18:02.
The hole got a little deeper for Worcester halfway through the second frame when, just as Anthony Hora’s tripping minor was expiring, Anthony Rinaldi fired a rebound back at Lennox that somehow managed to find its way through the netminder’s equipment into the net at 10:50.
We won’t complain about the penalty called against Hora, because even the homerest of homers couldn’t say it wasn’t an infraction. Well, they could, but you’d be able to laugh at them. The issue that this writer and those who sit around his perch have is that referee Chazz Knoche, who was massively out of position on the play, wasn’t going to call it until the Greenboro bench complained. At that point, it was the third time over the previous two games where essentially the bench made the call before Referee Knoche, who almost always seems to trail the play badly, put up his arm.
It’s a developmental league for referees too, and Referee Knoche needs a lot of developing.
Be that as it may, officiating isn’t the reason the Railers lost; it was their inability to bury the chances they got. And trust me, they had a lot of chances. Worcester could have easily had six or seven goals on the night, but managed only two.
That second one might be big, though, as captain Anthy Repaci finally broke his personal goalless streak at ten games. The Callin brothers had the assists, with Drew getting the primary and Anthony getting the secondary helper.
The last time Repaci went ten games without scoring a goal was his rookie season in Orlando in the post-COVID year that Worcester didn’t play.
From there, the Railers had trainloads of chances but couldn’t light the lamp again. Ethan Leyh made it the 4-2 final with an empty net goal at 19:56.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Thomas Gale (14-day IR/Unknown), Kolby Johnson (3-day IR), Cam McDonald, Porter Schachle (14-day IR/Unknown), Tanner Schachle, and TJ Walsh (14-day IR/Upper body). Henrik Tikkanen was the backup goaltender.
It’s the first time this season Worcester and Greensboro have met, so we’ll take a look at some roster and area connections between the two teams. For defenseman, Gabe Blanchard played three seasons for UMass-Lowell, Dalton Skelly spent four seasons at Holy Cross, and Andrius Kulbis-Marino was born in Methuen, MA. Fellow blueliner Noah Delmas played one season for the Railers, going 2-16-16 in 58 games with a minus-34 rating, which tied for the worst single-season rating in Worcester pro hockey history and tied for fourth in a Worcester pro career. For the forwards, Jordan Biro attended American International College for three seasons, and in the 2024-25 season, he served as an alternate captain. Ethan Leyh spent three seasons at Bentley University, captaining the Falcons his final two years. Wade Murphy is an original Worcester Railers player, scoring the first goal in franchise history before being unceremoniously traded by General Manager Jamie Russell for no good reason. There isn’t any current roster or area connections on the Railers roster.
This season, we’re tracking the points Worcester fails to get that they probably should have and the points they give away to North Division opponents. They’re currently called “Trash Points”, as in points thrown away, but we’ll gladly change the name if something better comes along. With all their missed opportunities Saturday night, we’ll be adding one point to Worcester’s current season total for not getting the game into overtime, making them minus-4 for the season. We don’t need to add anything to the Greensboro tally, as there’s nothing to say they wouldn’t have won in overtime.
I think how sharp-looking the Greenboro jerseys are needs to be mentioned. This picture isn’t great (click on it for a full-size version), but it’s good enough to show those who weren’t at the game how cool they look.
The font on their graphics is top-notch too, and the overall aesthetics around the “Gargoyles” moniker, which I originally thought might be a little silly, is really well done. I can only imagine the amount of merchandise they sell.
If you take even a casual look at it, Florida Panthers forward Eetu Luostarinen and former Worcester IceCats defenseman Derek Diener don’t have a whole lot in common. One was a late-round draft pick of the Philadelphia Flyers who somehow had no idea how to play defense and, perhaps incorrectly based on the obvious lack of talent, won the David Haas Award, and the other is, well, an actual hockey player. But oddly enough, the one thing they do have in common has little to do with hockey: they both suffered what has been termed “a barbecuing mishap.” While the specifics of what happened to Luostarinen are unknown, and right now his return is based solely on when he can comfortably get his equipment back on, but thanks to former Telegram scribe Bill Ballou, we know what happened to Diener. He burned his forehead on his barbecue grill when the briquets of his gas grill got covered with drippings and caught on fire. The 6’5″ Diener leaned over to blow out the flames, and his forehead hit the hot top grill, leaving the telltale marks behind. Diener didn’t miss any games, which may or may not have been a good thing.
The three stars of the game were
1. GSO – #17 Anthony Rinaldi
2. GSO – #32 Nikiti Quapp
3. WOR – #81 Anthony Repaci
The 210Sports Player of the Game was Lincoln Hatten.
Even Strength Lines
Repaci / D.Callin / A.Callin
Donhauser / Miotto / Mitton
Nurmi / Dorrington / Piercey
Ginnell / DeMelis / Hatten
Hora / Ferrandino
Stief / Samuelsson
Dowler / Suda
Press Releases
RAILERS: Worcester comeback falls short in 4-2 loss to Gargoyles
GARGOYLES: Gargoyles extend 3-game road win streak 4-2 over Worcester
Our affiliates last night
St. Louis 2, NY Islanders 1
Syracuse 5, Bridgeport 3
In the ECHL’s North Division last night
Wheeling 3, Reading 1
Adirondack 1, Indy 0 SO
Trois-Rivières 6, Norfolk 1
BOX SCORE
Greensboro 2 1 1 – 4
Worcester 1 1 0 – 2
1st Period-1, Greensboro, Richardson 2 (Leiter, Leyh), 5:17 (PP). 2, Worcester, Hatten 5 (Suda, DeMelis), 15:25. 3, Greensboro, Zins 1 (Murphy, Kyte), 18:02. Penalties-Hatten Wor (tripping), 4:50.
2nd Period-4, Greensboro, Rinaldi 4 (Leyh, Leiter), 10:50. 5, Worcester, Repaci 2 (Callin, Callin), 15:48. Penalties-Hora Wor (tripping), 8:47; Murphy Gso (cross-checking), 17:35.
3rd Period-6, Greensboro, Leyh 3 (Murphy, Zins), 19:56 (EN). Penalties-No Penalties
Shots on Goal-Greensboro 14-9-3-26. Worcester 6-8-12-26.
Power Play Opportunities-Greensboro 1 / 2; Worcester 0 / 1.
Goalies-Greensboro, Quapp 1-0-0-0 (26 shots-24 saves). Worcester, Lennox 1-5-0-0 (25 shots-22 saves).
A-3,820
Referees-Chazz Knoche (33), -.
Linesmen-Noah Merrow (57), Cody Sullivan (82).
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