The Worcester Railers opened the 2026 calendar year Friday night at WesBanco Arena in Wheeling, West Virginia with another matchup against the Nailers, and made too many mistakes to take advantage of Wheeling’s shortened roster in a 3-2 loss.
After a scoreless opening period that saw Worcester take two silly penalties and the Nailers hit the pipes twice behind Railers goaltender Tristan Lennox, Wheeling made it 1-0 26 seconds into the second when Logan Pietila’s shot hit a Railers player and deflected past Lennox.
At 5:12 of the period, Cole Donhauser would tie the game on a nice deflection of Michael Suda’s shot. Anthony Repaci would have the secondary assist.
Unfortunately, eighty-nine seconds later, Wheeling would retake the lead when Matty De St. Phalle intentionally played the puck off of Lennox, and with all the Railers defenders facing the wrong way, Pietila was able to grab his second of the game to make it 2-1.
At the end of the second period, Adam Samuelsson took a roughing minor–you can argue that it should have been a matching penalty all you want, but he had no business putting himself in that position to begin with–and at 1:39 of the third, Randy Hernández fired an absolute laser over the shoulder of Lennox. The puck bounded out of the net quickly, but referee Ryan Siegel was right on it, signaling a goal long before the red light went on and the horn sounded. There was a video review, but as it was correctly called on the ice, it was a good goal.
With just under six minutes to go in the third, Worcester went on their seventh power play of the game, and head coach Nick Tuzzolino wasted no time in pulling Lennox for a sixth attacker, and that paid off at 14:37 when Lincoln Hatten grabbed a power play goal, assisted by Anthony Callin and Suda, to make it 3-2.
But the Railers would register just a single shot on goal after that, a 130ish foot dump-in by Hatten so Worcester could change lines, and that was it.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were MacAuley Carson (14-day IR/Unknown), Michael Ferrandino (14-day IR/Unknown), Luke Pavacich, and Porter Schachle (14-day IR/Unknown). Thomas Gale was the backup goaltender.
There were two penalties to take note of in the game, the first being Max Dorrington’s game misconduct for fighting Matthew Quercia. It was originally for leaving the player’s bench, which he absolutely did, but it was a legal line change. But now it reads for “Game misconduct – Returning to ice/bench”, which can carry a five-game suspension. I suspect that the original call, and a few others in the game, resulted in the second penalty to take note of, a bench game misconduct given to the Railers at the end of the game. We probably haven’t heard the last of this.
In a transaction from before the new year, the NY Islanders reassigned forward Jesse Nurmi to London of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL). This effectively ends Nurmi’s season with the Railers for now, as the NHL/CHL agreement allows only for emergency recalls by NHL clubs once a player is assigned back to the CHL, and those conditions don’t apply to the AHL or ECHL. The Knights’ regular season ends March 21st, and presuming they make the playoffs, their season could continue well into April. Currently, the Railers have six games scheduled after April 1st, with the possibility of three more if the ECHL adds another week to the season for the postponed games. This means we would be approaching the point where the Islanders may not want the Finnish winger to play that many games this season.
Twenty-twenty-six marks the 32nd calendar year of pro hockey in the city of Worcester, and the record will show that Cole Donhauser grabbed the first goal of the new year. He is the 31st different player to open the calendar year with a goal, with only the IceCats’ Jamal Mayers managing to do it twice, in 1997 and 1999. While the Railers have had ten different goal scorers start off a year, there are 11 Railers on the list, as former captain Ashton Rome opened 2007 with a goal for the WorSharks.
A quick note about Worcester’s 7-2 win on Wednesday, Anthony Callin became the third Railers player in franchise history to be named the #1 star of the game ten or more times. Anthony Repaci is tops on the Railers list with 20, followed by Henrik Tikkanen’s 12. The trio are also the top three in total star points. Using the 5-3-1 system, Repaci has 167, Tikkanen has 94, and the younger Callin has 80. The gap between third and fourth on the active list is large, with Drew Callin being in fourth with 33.
The Andrei Bakanov watch continues, as the former Railers forward has resumed his journey through the ECHL this season. After going pointless in five games in Norfolk, Bakanov was released in early November, so the Florida Everblades thought they’d give him a shot in mid-December. The holiday break and players’ strike artificially lengthened Bakanov’s stay in the Sunshine State, but readers won’t get any points in guessing how many goals and assists Bakanov got in his three games with the Everblades, so you’d all end up with equal totals. The next victim, err, team up is the Tulsa Oilers, who claimed Bakanov off waivers on New Year’s Day.
And finally, this writer has more than once referred to many ECHL referees as clowns. Yes, it’s a developmental league for officials too, but some of these guys are so bad it’s laughable. So, why not just go all the way and have someone trying to be funny refereeing games? Will Ferrell showed up at an LA Kings game in referee’s gear last week, and while I would have been angry paying all that money and ending up sitting behind him, it was amusing on TV.
The three stars of the game were
1. WHL – #13 Logan Pietila
2. WHL – #33 Taylor Gauthier
3. WHL – #19 Randy Hernández
The 210Sports Player of the Game was Michael Suda.
Even Strength Lines
Repaci / Miotto / Mitton
Ginnell / A.Callin / Dorrington
Donhauser / DeMelis / Hatten
Walsh / X / T.Schachle
Samuelsson / Suda
Hora / Blanchard
Piercey / Kaebel
Federkow
Press Releases
RAILERS: Worcester comeback falls short in 3-2 loss to Wheeling
NAILERS: Nailers get revenge on Railers 3-2
Our affiliates last night
Springfield 4, Bridgeport 2
In the ECHL’s North Division last night
Adirondack 4 Maine 1
South Carolina 3, Greensboro 1
Savannah 2, Trois-Rivières 1
Norfolk 4, Reading 3 OT
BOX SCORE
Worcester 0 1 1 – 2
Wheeling 0 2 1 – 3
1st Period- No Scoring.Penalties-served by Kaebel Wor (bench – too many men), 7:01; Federkow Wor (delay of game), 15:07.
2nd Period-1, Wheeling, Pietila 6 (Johnson, Armstrong), 0:26. 2, Worcester, Donhauser 9 (Suda, Repaci), 5:12 (PP). 3, Wheeling, Pietila 7 (De St. Phalle, Sutter), 6:41. Penalties-Hodass Whl (hooking), 4:44; Sutter Whl (holding), 11:40; Hora Wor (misconduct – continuing altercation), 14:04; Schachle Wor (cross-checking), 14:04; De St. Phalle Whl (unsportsmanlike conduct, misconduct – continuing altercation), 14:04; Quercia Whl (roughing), 14:04; Parker Whl (hooking), 16:51; Dorrington Wor (fighting – major, game misconduct – returning to ice/bench), 18:47; Quercia Whl (fighting – major), 18:47; Samuelsson Wor (roughing), 20:00.
3rd Period-4, Wheeling, Hernández 5 (Hodass, Cole), 1:39 (PP). 5, Worcester, Hatten 9 (Callin, Suda), 14:37 (PP). Penalties-Tymkin Whl (tripping), 2:43; Pieniniemi Whl (hooking), 11:23; Lockhart Whl (high-sticking), 14:06; Wor (game misconduct – coach), 20:00.
Shots on Goal-Worcester 7-14-11-32. Wheeling 12-12-9-33.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 2 / 7; Wheeling 1 / 3.
Goalies-Worcester, Lennox 1-6-0-0 (33 shots-30 saves). Wheeling, Gauthier 3-1-0-0 (32 shots-30 saves).
A-1,972
Referees-Chris Conway (60), Ryan Siegel (42).
Linesmen-Austin March (80), Joe Sherman (46).
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