The Worcester Railers headed north to Portland, Maine Friday for the first of two at the Cross Insurance Arena against their ECHL North Division rivals in the Pine Tree State, and not only had to battle with the Mariners but also against the two guys calling penalties, but thanks to two Anthony Callin goals and one incredible save by netminder Tristan Lennox Worcester came out on top 3-2 in a shootout.
The Railers came out of the gates slowly, and Maine took advantage by pressing as hard as they could, and grabbed the only goal in the opening period when Andrew Nielsen, who played three games for Worcester last season, beat Lennox just under the crossbar and in at 4:58.
Perhaps more correctly, the Mariners had the only goal that counted, but Worcester had one that was absolutely a good goal and was taken off the board for no reason in the rulebook.
At 18:03, after a faceoff win in the Maine zone, Michael Suda fired one on goal from the blueline. Mariners netminder Luke Cavallin made the save, with the puck landing right in front of him. Ryan Miotto, who had set a moving screen in front of Cavallin, found the loose puck and whacked at it a couple of times before putting it in. Referee Evan Reddick immediately signaled a good goal. That’s important because once it’s called a good goal on the ice, it requires conclusive evidence that it’s not a goal. And, looking at the video, neither of the two referees on the ice thought anything other than it was a good goal.
It took 40 seconds for Referee Reddick to be summoned to the Maine bench, where head coach Rick Kowalsky essentially challenged the goal. That is not allowed in the ECHL, but the refs did it anyway. The review began 90 seconds after the puck crossed the goal line, and 3:26 after the red light went on, Reddick determined it was no goal.
This writer has watched that video a dozen times, and there is simply no goaltender interference in the play. Cavallin makes the initial save and attempts to cover the loose puck twice, and ultimately, the puck goes in the net. An attacking player has the same right to the loose puck as the goaltender does, and as long as no attacking player prevents the goaltender from playing his position, there’s no goaltender interference.
The way the game was going, the referees stealing that goal from the Railers looked huge as Worcester was having their usual issues with getting one past Cavallin.
Things didn’t look any better in the second period when, while killing a penalty, Anthony Hora was called for interference when he finished his check on Maine forward Jacob Perreault. It was Referee Reddick with the call again, who had the play happen right in front of him. In this picture, you can see Hora (#3) about to check Perreault. The puck is still on Perreault’s stick.
Lennox and the Railers managed to kill off the five-on-three power play.
Like on Wednesday, it was in the third period where the Railers shone. Anthony Callin’s first of the game came at 3:38 of the third period, while shorthanded, and there was no way the refs could steal this one away. Cam McDonald and older brother Drew had the helpers.
Less than three minutes later, Callin the younger would strike again, this time on the power play, and it was 2-1 Worcester at 6:34.
With two and a half minutes to go in regulation, Maine would tie it with an extra attacker goal when Antonio Venuto deflected Brooklyn Kalmikov’s bid into the net to tie it 2-2.
The overtime period was all Maine, but Lennox made a franchise record nine saves in the extra session, including this one, where he stole back the goal the referees took from Worcester in the first period.
To the shootout the teams went, where the Railers haven’t been all that good in recent years. But perhaps Friday night will start a new trend as both Matt DeMelis and Miotto beat Cavallin, while only Kalmikov could get one past Lennox, and when Lennox made the save on Zach Jordan, Worcester got themselves two points.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Michael Ferrandino (14-day IR/Unknown), Thomas Gale, Riley Ginnell (14-day IR/Upper Body), Lazarus Kaebel (3-day IR), Case McCarthy (14-day IR/Unknown), and Ross Mitton (14-day IR/Upper Body). Parker Gahagen was the backup goaltender. Friday Porter Schachle was activated from IR and released.
Each team has some postgame paperwork to do for the league, including reviewing and commenting on the performance of the on-ice officials. This writer has never seen one of those forms, but I think the one each team filed for last night would be fun to read.
It was a short stay in Worcester for Cam Berg, who was recalled back to Bridgeport right after Wednesday’s 4-1 win over Reading. With his recall, Berg is one of four Worcester pros to have two points in only one regular season game played, joining Chris Blight, Kyle Schempp, and Marc-Édouard Vlasic. Berg is the only one of the four to score a goal, and the latter three each have two assists. Blight does get an asterisk, if you’re into such things, because he played a playoff game for the WorSharks four seasons before his one-and-done regular-season outing. We are keeping our eyes open for a potential scoring change that would give Berg an assist on Anthony Repaci’s opening power play goal.
While we presumed that Adirondack’s Jeremy Brodeur being added to the ECHL All-Star game was because the New York Islanders weren’t going to make Henrik Tikkanen, who is on recall to Bridgeport, available to the game, the ECHL has confirmed it with its new updated player list. The Railers now have no current players participating. Former Worcester and current Tahoe Knight Monsters forward Devon Paliani was selected as an injury replacement. With the Allen Americans hosting, their players will all be taking part in the game, including former WorSharks forward Spencer Asuchak and former short-time Railers forward Michael Gildon. Danny Katic, who was signed in January 2022 by then general manager David Cunniff and subsequently suspended, also plays for Allen.
Friday afternoon, the Railers announced the rescheduling of the games against Adirondack, postponed by the ECHL players strike, with Saturday, December 27th’s game moving to Saturday, April 18th, with the usual 6pm Saturday start time. The game originally scheduled for Sunday, December 28th, will take place on Sunday, April 19th at 3pm. In addition, Worcester’s game against the Maine Mariners, originally scheduled for Friday, December 26th, has been changed to Wednesday, April 15th at 7:05 PM at Cross Insurance Arena in Portland. The schedule changes mean the Railers will finish out the regular season at home for the first time since their inaugural 2017-18 season.
The Fort Wayne Komets posted a New Year’s Eve video of referee Nolan Knezevic wearing a GoPro camera, and those videos are always pretty cool, so we’ll share it here for that, and one more reason.
The video shows Referee Knezevic making a rules error, which, as you can hear from the video, he tells the linesman that if he’s wrong, he’ll apologize. Late in the second period, with Fort Wayne’s Reece Harsch in the penalty box, Bloomington’s Mark Kaleinikovas scored on a delayed penalty call. In the NHL ruleset, which is what the pro leagues in North America use, Harsch comes out of the penalty box because of the power play goal, and the delayed penalty on the unknown Komets player is enforced. But Referee Knezevic keeps Harsch in the sin bin and wipes out the delayed call, which is what the USA Hockey ruleset calls for. The error didn’t have any impact on the game as the Bison scored at even strength 24 seconds later, and went on to win the game 4-3.
The three stars of the game were
1. WOR – #30 Tristan Lennox
2. WOR – #44 Anthony Callin
3. MNE – #6 Andrew Nielsen
The 210Sports Player of the Game was Ryan Miotto.
Even Strength Lines
Repaci / Miotto / Dorrington
Veremyev / A.Callin / D.Callin
Donhauser / DeMelis / Hatten
Carson / X / Piercey
Pulkkinen / Samuelsson
McDonald / Suda
Hora / Blanchard
Federkow
Press Releases
RAILERS: Railers win thriller in Maine 3-2 in a shootout
MARINERS: Mariners extend point streak to five in shootout loss
Our affiliates last night
Bridgeport 3, Lehigh Valley 1
In the ECHL’s North Division last night
Trois-Rivières 3, Adirondack 1
Reading 6, Greensboro 6
Norfolk 2, Wheeling 1
BOX SCORE
Worcester 0 0 2 0 – 3
Maine 1 0 1 0 – 2
1st Period-1, Maine, Nielsen 4 (Edward, Perreault), 4:58. Penalties-Lamppa Mne (tripping), 7:19.
2nd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Miotto Wor (holding), 1:36; served by Deelstra Mne (bench – too many men), 3:06; Hatten Wor (double – roughing), 10:56; Hemstrom Mne (roughing), 10:56; Thompson Mne (misconduct), 10:56; Hora Wor (interference), 11:22; Andreev Mne (hooking), 15:53; Andreev Mne (unsportsmanlike conduct), 17:59.
3rd Period-2, Worcester, Callin 9 (McDonald, Callin), 3:38 (SH). 3, Worcester, Callin 10 (Donhauser, Suda), 6:34 (PP). 4, Maine, Venuto 8 (Kalmikov, Nielsen), 17:29. Penalties-Carson Wor (high-sticking), 2:32; Nielsen Mne (interference), 4:41.
1st OT Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Hatten Wor (holding), 4:51.
Shootout – Worcester 2 (DeMelis G, Veremyev NG, Miotto G), Maine 1 (Kalmikov G, Perreault NG, Jordan NG).
Shots on Goal-Worcester 10-7-5-2-1-25. Maine 11-9-10-9-0-39.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 1 / 5; Maine 0 / 5.
Goalies-Worcester, Lennox 2-8-0-0 (39 shots-37 saves). Maine, Cavallin 11-5-3-1 (24 shots-22 saves).
A-4,442
Referees-Evan Reddick (21), Eliot Grauer (59).
Linesmen-Stephen Drain (52), Michael Tarquinio (45).
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