GLENS FALLS, NY – The Worcester Railers took on the Adirondack Thunder Friday night at the newly renamed Harding Mazzotti Arena in Glens Falls, New York, and while the schedule said it was a 7pm start time the Railers offense didn’t show up until the third period, but the one goal they did manage, along with 28 saves from Parker Gahagen, was enough to steal a point in Worcester’s 2-1 loss to the Thunder in overtime.
Things did not start off well for the Railers as the first shot Gahagen faced wearing a Railers jersey, beat him when three Railers players turned their backs to T.J. Friedmann in the slot. There’s a good chance Gahagen didn’t actually see the puck until it was too late. We don’t usually show the opponent’s goals, but this is such a mess it has to be seen to be believed.
From there, Gahagen made saves on the next 28 Adirondack shots, which is the only thing that kept Worcester in the game.
The Railers were outshot 12-7 in the opening frame, and this writer had them unofficially at zero actual scoring chances. In the second frame, it was more of the same as Worcester was outshot 10-4, and were once again unofficially blanked in legitimate scoring opportunities.
That second period was also the only stanza referees Brendan Schreider and Evan Reddick decided to call penalties. Oh, no, there were infractions by both teams, in probably equal numbers throughout the game, but for some reason, Schreider and Reddick just didn’t call them. The seven minutes called against Lincoln Hatten and Jacob Graves, officially for fighting and removing their helmets, could have just as easily been called delay of game if that were such a thing, and MacAuley Carson’s slashing minor wasn’t nearly as egregious as many of the things they let go.
It wouldn’t be a Railers game without them taking a dumb penalty, and Cam McDonald got that box checked with his brainless cross-checking minor at 15:59. It was the kind of penalty that often gets you put on reserve, giving you the next night or two off. We’ll see what head coach Nick Tuzzolino does for Saturday’s game.
The Railers came out for the third period with a little more pep in their step, and while it increased their shot totals, there weren’t many that were true scoring chances. Thunder netminder Jakub Málek made the saves look easy, mostly because they really were.
And then, literally out of nowhere, Ryan Miotto was able to wheel the Adirondack net and find Riley Ginnell all alone in front. It may have been the only real mistake the Thunder made all night, and Ginnell made them pay for it at 10:39.
At that point, it was on the goalies, and regulation would end with the squads tied 1-1. The Railers won the opening face-off in extra time, but somehow managed to be offside entering the attacking zone. The second face-off was won by the Thunder, and at 44 seconds into overtime, Brannon McManus was able to skate through the Worcester defense and beat Gahagen with an absolute laser that went bar down.
The two teams will be back at it again Saturday night, with another 7pm puck drop. Someone should make sure the Railers’ offense shows up on time.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Max Dorrington (suspended, game 1 of 4), Brendan Dowler, Thomas Gale (14-day IR/Unknown), Porter Schachle (14-day IR/Unknown), Tanner Schachle (3-day IR), and TJ Walsh (14-day IR/Upper body). Tristan Lennox was the backup goaltender.
On Tuesday, forward Jesse Nurmi and goaltender Henrik Tikkanen were both reassigned from the Railers to Bridgeport by the New York Islanders, and on Wednesday, forward Gleb Veremyev was reassigned by the Islanders from Bridgeport to Worcester. Goaltender Parker Gahagen was then loaned to Worcester by Bridgeport.
The transaction everyone was talking about was Railers GM Nick Tuzzolino sending fan-favorite forward Kolby Johnson to Jacksonville in exchange for MacAuley Carson on Tuesday. As one might expect when a team trades away a charismatic enforcer, most fans were in an uproar. But with no true enforcer in the ECHL’s North Division for Johnson to fight, he was having a hard time getting into the line-up, and Johnson didn’t get much playing time in the four games he did get into. Like Yanick Turcotte before him, teams figured out the best way to deal with Johnson was to ignore him when he was on the ice, knowing he would eventually take a dumb penalty. Johnson should have a chance to shine in the South Division.
This is a good place to note that Henrik Tikkanen was named the ECHL’s “Goaltender of the Week” for last week, going 3-0-0 with one shutout, a 0.97 goals-against average, and a save percentage of .965 in three appearances. It’s the fourth time in Railers franchise history they’ve had a “Goaltender of the Week”. Mitch Gillam won it twice, once in the 2017-18 season and once in 2018-19. Evan Buitenhuis also won once in the 2018-19 campaign.
As we expected, despite us being coy as to who it was, hoping there wasn’t a clear view of it, the ECHL did have enough video to suspend Railers forward Max Dorrington four games for an unpenalized check to the head of Gargoyles forward C.J. Walker during the first period of last Sunday’s 3-2 overtime win over Greensboro. It doesn’t appear that Walker returned to the game Sunday, and was a scratch for the Gargoyles on Wednesday. He is currently not on injured reserve for the team, but did not playon Friday.
It’s supposed to be the home team wearing white for the first half of the ECHL season, but Friday night, we missed a potential color vs color match-up when Adirondack went with their black sweaters and the Railers wore white instead of orange. But, I know why Worcester didn’t go with their orange third sweaters, as Saturday Adirondack is in a Military Appreciation specialty jersey–it looks incredible–and Sunday they’re in red. White makes sense against the red and blue doesn’t work opposite the black, so that’s why they’re wearing white this weekend on the road.
For those that don’t know, one of the goals on the 210Sports website is to have a recap of every game played in Worcester pro hockey history. Right now, it’s short just two IceCats preseason games, and it’s starting to look like we’ll never get anything on those games. Despite being an amateur team playing in a pro league, there are also scores, and for some games, box scores for Worcester Warriors games. I was pretty sure I had them all, but on Thanksgiving morning, I stumbled onto a source that showed a game I didn’t have listed. After a couple of messages, it turned out they had the wrong date of a Warriors 8-2 loss to Washington played in Atlantic City on January 22, 1955. But to confirm my date being correct, they dug up an old Atlantic City Press news article, which had game information I didn’t know. That information has now been added here to the site.
The three stars of the game were
1. ADK – #39 Brannon McManus
2. ADK – #31 Jakub Málek
3. WOR – #35 Parker Gahagen
The 210Sports Player of the Game was Riley Ginnell.
Even Strength Lines
Repaci / D.Callin / A.Callin
Donhauser / Miotto / Mitton
Ginnell / DeMelis / Hatten
Veremyev / Piercey / Carson
Hora / Ferrandino
Stief / Samuelsson
McDonald / Suda
Press Releases
RAILERS: Worcester grabs overtime point in 2-1-loss to Thunder
THUNDER: Thunder win OT thriller over Railers 2-1
Our affiliates last night
Philadelphia 4, NY Islanders 3 SO
Springfield 6, Bridgeport 3
In the ECHL’s North Division last night
Trois-Rivières 5, Reading 1
South Carolina 5, Greensboro 4 OT
Maine 3, Norfolk 2
Wheeling 5, Toledo 2
BOX SCORE
Worcester 0 0 1 0 – 1
Adirondack 1 0 0 1 – 2
1st Period-1, Adirondack, Friedmann 2 (McLane), 2:47. Penalties-No Penalties
2nd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Hatten Wor (removing the helmet, fighting – major), 1:57; Graves Adk (removing the helmet, fighting – major), 1:57; Carson Wor (slashing), 11:13; McDonald Wor (cross-checking), 15:59.
3rd Period-2, Worcester, Ginnell 2 (Miotto, Mitton), 10:39. Penalties-No Penalties
1st OT Period-3, Adirondack, McManus 7 (Hanzel, Filmon), 0:44. Penalties-No Penalties
Shots on Goal-Worcester 7-4-11-0-22. Adirondack 12-10-7-1-30.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 0 / 0; Adirondack 0 / 2.
Goalies-Worcester, Gahagen 0-0-1-0 (30 shots-28 saves). Adirondack, Málek 1-0-1-0 (22 shots-21 saves).
A-4,911
Referees-Brendan Schreider (12), Evan Reddick (21).
Linesmen-Jack McQuesten (53), Noah Merrow (57).
—
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 a lot 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