For the second time in as many nights, the Worcester Railers took on the Admirals at the Norfolk Scope, and Saturday night Worcester needed two late goals to overcome a deficit and turn what was looking like another loss into two points in a stunning 6-5 come-from-behind win. Thirteen of the 18 Railers skaters had points in the contest.
The adage goes something like “I’d rather win a poorly played game than lose a great one”, and that accurately describes what took place Saturday night, as at times the game looked like Squirts were out there playing, and others like they were fighting to win Lord Stanley’s Cup. To call that game “mistake-filled” would be a massive understatement, but in the end, Worcester got the only thing that mattered.
Two points in regulation.
The game began just like Friday’s, with Norfolk’s Brady Fleurent opening the scoring, this time just over six minutes in, as opposed to Friday’s just after two. This writer immediately posted on Twitter that perhaps the Railers might want to try to cover Fleurent. Well, from that point, they did. Unfortunately, it was the other 17 guys that they sometimes forgot to get near.
With no audio because of streaming issues, Drew Callin got the equalizer at 15:30, with assists from brother Anthony and Cole Donhauser. It went to review, but was called a good goal.
We’ll give the Railers’ social media folks a break for the brotherly mix-up, as without audio it’s not easy to tell who scored and the goal on the sheet says just “Callin 11 (Callin, Donhauser), 15:30.”
Two and a half minutes later, Kevin Conley made it 2-1 Norfolk, but with time winding down on the opening frame, Jesse Pulkkinen blasted one through traffic on the power play to knot the score 2-2. The elder Callin and Anthony Repaci had the assists.
At 13:34 of the middle period, Repaci gave Worcester its first lead of the game when he found a loose puck in front and fired it past Admirals’ netminder Alex Worthington. Linemates Lincoln Hatten and Ryan Miotto had the helpers.
That lead would not survive the period as Norfolk scored a power play goal of their own in the last minute of the frame when Conley intentionally played the puck off of Worcester goaltender Tristan Lennox, and Grant Hebert was all alone at the backdoor to bang it home.
The third stanza opened with both teams tied 3-3 and playing wide-open end-to-end hockey with very few stoppages, at one point going 7:28 of play with no whistles, ending when Conley connected again to make it 4-3 Norfolk at 9:48.
Newcomer Khristian Acosta, playing in his first career ECHL game, tied it for the Railers exactly a minute later. MacAuley Carson and Miotto had the assists. Adam Samuelsson gets no scoresheet credit for scooping up the goal puck for Acosta, so we’ll mention it here.
The joy of that tying goal was short-lived as Chase Yoder gave Norfolk its lead back just 28 seconds later.
Just as it was looking like Worcester was going to have another situation of a game ending in the loss column that should have been marked as a win, Lincoln Hatten took advantage of an Admirals mistake as he was a wide-open target for Riley Piercey’s pass. Matt DeMelis had the secondary assist at 16:26.
Both teams then went into a defensive shell, trying to hold on to get at least a point in the contest. With under a minute left, both teams were scrumming for the puck along the boards to the right of Worthington, and with referee Tyler Hascall having clear sight of the puck, he allowed the slow play to continue.
In the end, that worked out great for the Railers, as eventually Max Dorrington would find DeMelis all alone in front, and it was suddenly 6-5 Worcester. Samuelsson had the other helper on the play with 14.2 seconds left on the clock.
Norfolk would pull Worthington for the extra attacker and did win the ensuing faceoff, but Gabe Blanchard collected their flip into the zone, freezing the puck in the corner with Drew Callin as three Admirals players tried in vain to pry it loose.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Michael Ferrandino (14-day IR/Unknown), Thomas Gale, Riley Ginnell (14-day IR/Upper body), Hunter Hall, Anthony Hora (14-day IR/Lower body), Lazarus Kaebel, Case McCarthy (14-day IR/Unknown), and Ross Mitton (14-day IR/Upper body). Parker Gahagen was the backup goaltender.
Scoring an unassisted goal isn’t all that uncommon in hockey, especially in road games where the official scorers tend to be more strict on who gets helpers for visiting players. This season, the Railers have six unassisted goals, which is right in the ballpark compared to what other ECHL teams have. So, based on that number, for a team to have two in one game is fairly rare. Now, how rare would it be for a player to have two in one game? Well, it happened twice Saturday night in the ECHL, and two former Railers players were involved. Michael Gildon did it for the Allen Americans in their game in Idaho, with Gildon getting the goal that sent the contest to overtime. Meanwhile, in Independence, Missouri, the Tahoe Knight Monsters were taking on the Kansas City Mavericks, and Devon Paliani had two helperless goals. None of the four goals went into an empty net, which is where you see a lot of unassisted goals scored. As far as this writer can tell, no player has ever done it in a Worcester jersey, but notes show the first time it happened against a city team was when Saint John’s Hnat Domenichelli scored two unassisted shorthanded goals on November 6, 1997, against Frederic Cassivi and the IceCats. That game ended in a brawl, with referee Tom Kowal whistling a total of 174 penalty minutes, 125 in the last five minutes of the 6-3 IceCats loss.
Hockey fans frequently joke about players with little to no trade value, saying things like “you couldn’t get a bag of pucks for him”. Now imagine how funny it would be if an actual high-level league had a trade where a team received less than a bag of pucks for a player. Well, you don’t really have to imagine it, because it happened in the KHL recently when the Admiral Vladivostok sent 25-year-old defenseman Vladislav Leontiev to the Shanghai Dragons in exchange for cash considerations that were equal to about $15. The thing is, looking at the stats, Admiral Vladivostok is a terrible team — they’re currently 13-25-8 — and Leontiev looks to be a decent defensive-minded blueliner who is 29-52-81 in 334 games between Russia’s two top-tier leagues. His only “minus” season is this year, where he’s minus-8 on that bad Admiral Vladivostok squad. So we should be so lucky to get decent players so cheaply.
Speaking of players with no value(s), Ben “Mr. Convicted Sex Offender” Johnson is in the news again after the FPHL’s Baton Rouge Zydeco signed him to a contract yesterday. Readers will remember that two ECHL teams signed Johnson this season, Adirondack and Allen, only to release him after public outcry over his 2016 conviction for sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl in the washroom of a Windsor, Ontario bar in March 2013. While sources say hockey operations for both Adirondack and Allen were unaware of the conviction, something that certainly seems possible for the Thunder but rather unlikely for the Americans, Baton Rouge would have absolutely heard about him after the two previous signings. Johnson played Friday night, earning an assist, but according to PuckEmpire, the FPHL suspended Johnson on Saturday. I suspect we haven’t heard the last of this.
The three stars of the game were
1. WOR – #37 Matt DeMelis
2. NOR – #12 Kevin Conley
3. WOR – #77 Drew Callin
The 210Sports Player of the Game was Lincoln Hatten.
Even Strength Lines
Repaci / Miotto / Hatten
Donhauser / A.Callin / D.Callin
Piercey / DeMelis / Dorrington
Carson / Acosta / Myers
Pulkkinen / Samuelsson
McDonald / Suda
Federkow / Blanchard
Press Releases
RAILERS: Railers freeze Admirals winning streak with 6-5 victory
ADMIRALS: None at post time
Our affiliates last night
Buffalo 5, NY Islanders 0
Providence 4, Bridgeport 3 SO
In the ECHL’s North Division last night
Maine 7, Trois-Rivières 1
Reading 5, Wheeling 2
Adirondack 4, Greensboro 1
BOX SCORE
Worcester 2 1 3 – 6
Norfolk 2 1 2 – 5
1st Period-1, Norfolk, Fleurent 14 (Hebert, Papp), 6:01. 2, Worcester, Callin 11 (Callin, Donhauser), 15:30. 3, Norfolk, Conley 6 (Engum, McDougall), 17:35. 4, Worcester, Pulkkinen 5 (Callin, Repaci), 19:46 (PP). Penalties-Crane Nor (slashing), 13:18; Engum Nor (holding), 19:40.
2nd Period-5, Worcester, Repaci 11 (Hatten, Miotto), 13:34. 6, Norfolk, Hebert 8 (Conley, Crane), 19:43 (PP). Penalties-Yoder Nor (interference), 2:23; Hebert Nor (holding), 17:12; Miotto Wor (tripping), 19:01.
3rd Period-7, Norfolk, Conley 7 (Crane, Young), 9:48. 8, Worcester, Acosta 1 (Carson, Miotto), 10:48. 9, Norfolk, Yoder 10 (McDougall, Engum), 11:15. 10, Worcester, Hatten 11 (Piercey, DeMelis), 16:26. 11, Worcester, DeMelis 12 (Dorrington, Samuelsson), 19:45. Penalties-No Penalties
Shots on Goal-Worcester 12-5-8-25. Norfolk 6-11-9-26.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 1 / 4; Norfolk 1 / 1.
Goalies-Worcester, Lennox 3-9-0-0 (26 shots-21 saves). Norfolk, Worthington 1-9-2-0 (25 shots-19 saves).
A-4,496
Referees-Tyler Hascall (8), David Lilly (25).
Linesmen-Evan Knox (83), Joseph Johnson (78).
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