The Worcester Railers, playing as the Worcester IceCats and wearing jerseys based on the IceCats’ fifth anniversary sweaters, took on the high-flying Florida Everblades at the DCU Center Friday night and were completely overmatched in a 4-1 loss in front of a boisterous crowd of 4,426.
The Everblades have been one of the top teams in the ECHL for years, winning three Kelly Cups in a row before being dethroned by the Trois-Rivières Lions last season. There is nothing on the ice that they don’t do well, and there is no shame in losing to them. The shame would be if a team didn’t give 100% effort during every shift playing against them, and the Railers did absolutely that all night.
Proof of that point came at the midpoint of the opening period when Drew Callin was hit hard on a clean open ice check by Oliver Cooper. Both Anthony Callin and Adam Samuelsson, neither of them considered fighters, went after Cooper, with Samuelsson finally dropping the gloves in what was his first ECHL fight since November of 2022. He acquitted himself well against the much more experienced Cooper.
Worcester was still playing full throttle hockey early in the second period when Max Dorrington finished his check on Sean Allen in the Florida zone. The two kept chirping at each other as they skated toward the neutral zone, finally dropping the gloves. When they finally started throwing punches, it was all Dorrington.
But fights don’t win games, goals do, and the Everblades were the first to break through when Craig Needham tipped Jordan Sambrook’s bid past Railers goaltender Tristan Lennox at 6:46 of the middle period to make it 1-0.
Logan Will made it 2-0 at 12:25 when Quinton Burns’ bid rang off the post to the left of Lennox and bounded into a pile of players storming the net, hitting Will and going in.
Worcester finally broke through at 16:22 on a nice deflection from Drew Callin, with Michael Suda and Anthony Hora currently listed as picking up the assists, although Suda’s will eventually be changed to Ryan Miotto.
All game long, referee David Lilly made it look like he was out for a nice evening skate, either deciding to ignore obvious calls or being so incompetent that he didn’t see them. Either way, the Everblades’ third goal, just 32 seconds after the Callin goal, is pretty much all on him, as he ignored an Everblades player holding a Worcester defender’s stick. We can’t tell you who was involved because the video does not show game action at the time.
At any rate, Tarun Fizer ended up scoring the back-breaking goal at 16:51.
You don’t see many even-strength empty net goals scored with both teams having the same number of skaters, but the Railers managed to give one up Friday when Lennox headed to the bench just as Worcester turned the puck over, and it was heading back in his direction. Whoever was supposed to come on just sat on the dasher as the goal was scored, saving himself from the minus rating.
Anthony Repaci did not record a shot on goal in the game, breaking a streak of 90 consecutive games with at least one shot. His last game with no shots? February 24, 2024, in a game he got injured in. The opponent? Florida.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were MacAuley Carson (14-day IR/Unknown), Michael Ferrandino (14-day IR/Unknown), Thomas Gale, Lazarus Kaebel, Case McCarthy (14-day IR/Unknown), Porter Schachle (14-day IR/Unknown), and Tanner Schachle (3-day IR). Parker Gahagen was the backup goaltender.
Eagle-eyed fans will notice that Worcester had three players listed on reserve at one time this week: Federkow, Kaebel, and Gale. Part of the new CBA is a third reserve spot that can be used exclusively for an extra goaltender. Now teams will no longer need to hide that extra goalie on the 3-day IR list and can use it for its intended purpose, which is for short-term injuries.
There were a ton of transactions since Worcester last played at the DCU Center, starting with Drew Callin being released from his PTO with Bridgeport. Despite not yet playing a game with them, Cam McDonald remains with the AHL Islanders on a PTO deal. On Tuesday, defenseman Case McCarthy was assigned to the Railers by Hartford, and goaltender Parker Gahagen was assigned by Bridgeport. Jesse Pulkkinen and Gleb Veremyev were assigned to Worcester by the New York Islanders. Also, in a transaction that was listed incorrectly, goaltender Luke Pavacich was released.
On Monday, Railers GM Nick Tuzzolino traded T.J. Walsh to Indy for the ever-popular “future considerations”. Fans had high hopes that the Shrewsbury, MA native would put up numbers similar to what he had in Iowa last season, but Walsh managed just two assists in the 11 games he got into this season. Walsh was acquired in a three-team deal that saw Worcester send Jordan Kaplan and Ryan Mahshie to Wheeling. Kaplan has since been traded to Cincinnati.
In a scoring change from last weekend, add an assist for Lincoln Hatten on Anthony Callin’s third-period power-play hat-trick goal. That goal now reads “Callin 8 (Suda, Hatten), 11:57 (PP).”
We mentioned last weekend that readers should pay attention to two penalties called in Friday night’s 3-2 loss in Wheeling, the first being Max Dorrington’s game misconduct for leaving the bench to start an altercation with Matthew Quercia. Late Friday, that penalty was changed to “Game misconduct – Returning to ice/bench”, which can carry a five-game suspension. Now that game misconduct has completely disappeared, with the penalty minutes having been removed from Dorrington’s and the team’s totals. The second one, the bench game misconduct, remains intact.
It’s the first time Worcester and Florida have played each other this season, so we’ll take a look at some roster and area connections between the squads. Defenseman Gianfranco Cassaro spent two seasons at UMass-Amherst, winning the National Championship with the Minutemen in 2020-21. Fellow blueliner Connor Doherty is from Holden, MA, and spent three seasons with the Railers. Forward Ben Brar spent five seasons at Merrimack College, captaining the Warriors his final two seasons there. Center Oliver Chau spent four years at UMass-Amherst, and Carson Gicewicz spent a single season there, both also winning the National Championship in 2020-21. Craig Needham is from Medford, MA. For the Railers, goaltender Parker Gahagen played one season with the Everblades, winning the Kelly Cup 2021-22.
There are still a handful of minor league hockey players out there who played against the Worcester Sharks, and the Everblades’ Kyle Neuber is one of them. He faced off against the WorSharks as a member of the Springfield Falcons on Saturday, March 26, 2011, in a Falcons 7-2 win. Neuber hit the scoresheet with a hooking minor. That was a game that saw Nick Tarnasky fight both Frazer McLaren and Nick Petrecki, although neither battle would be called “a classic”. The final part of the video is Nick Schaus being tackled by Nikita Filatov, and, no, I have no idea why that’s included.
The ECHL announced its 2025-26 All-Stars on Wednesday afternoon, and Railers netminder Henrik Tikkanen was selected. The 2026 ECHL All-Star Classic will take place on Monday, January 19th at 7:00pm ET at Credit Union of Texas Event Center in Allen, Texas. It will consist of players from the Allen Americans being combined with the ECHL All-Stars to form two teams – Stars and Stripes. A draft will take place leading up to the All-Star Classic to choose the two teams. Tikkanen, who is currently on recall to Bridgeport, will have to be replaced if the Islanders organization chooses to not make him available for the game. It’s not unreasonable to think Parker Gahagen, presuming he’s not recalled, could be an appropriate substitution.
The three stars of the game were
1. FLA – #55 Quinton Burns
2. FLA – #16 Tarun Fizer
3. WOR – #77 Drew Callin
The 210Sports Player of the Game was Adam Samuelsson.
Even Strength Lines
Repaci / A.Callin / D.Callin
Ginnell / Miotto / Veremyev
Donhauser / DeMelis / Hatten
Piercey / Dorrington / Mitton
Hora / Suda
Pulkkinen / Samuelsson
Blanchard / Federkow
Press Releases
RAILERS: IceCats weekend opens with 4-1 loss to Florida
EVERBLADES: Burns’ big night leads Blades to 4-1 win
Our affiliates last night
Providence 4, Bridgeport 1
In the ECHL’s North Division last night
Maine 4, Reading 3 OT
Norfolk 6, Adirondack 1
Wheeling 4, Trois-Rivières 3
Greensboro 5, Idaho 3
BOX SCORE
Florida 0 3 1 – 4
Worcester 0 1 0 – 1
1st Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Cooper Fla (fighting – major), 10:25; Samuelsson Wor (fighting – major), 10:25.
2nd Period-1, Florida, Needham 10 (Sambrook, Burns), 6:46. 2, Florida, Will 4 (Burns, Allen), 12:25. 3, Worcester, Callin 9 (Suda, Hora), 16:22. 4, Florida, Fizer 8 (Burns), 16:54. Penalties-Allen Fla (fighting – major), 4:21; Dorrington Wor (fighting – major), 4:21.
3rd Period-5, Florida, Fizer 9 (Betts, Burns), 16:16 (EN). Penalties-Lansdell Fla (roughing), 8:53.
Shots on Goal-Florida 6-14-6-26. Worcester 5-7-2-14.
Power Play Opportunities-Florida 0 / 0; Worcester 0 / 1.
Goalies-Florida, Cranley 10-1-0-0 (14 shots-13 saves). Worcester, Lennox 1-7-0-0 (25 shots-22 saves).
A-4,426
Referees-David Lilly (25), -.
Linesmen-Noah Merrow (57), Shane Kanaly (74).
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