The Worcester Railers took a two-goal lead late into the second period Saturday night at the DCU Center in “Pink in the Rink” night, but then squandered away that lead as the Trois-Rivières Lions scored the next two goals, and added a third in overtime to hand the Railers a 3-2 loss.
This writer has missed a bunch of games recently due to a knee injury, and has only been paying half attention when watching on FloHockey, but it took exactly three seconds on the Railers first power play to see one of the big issues pop up: rookie assistant coach Chris Rumble has Jesse Pulkkinen playing on the wrong side. With his cannon shot, Pulkkinen should be on the right point so his body is open to blast any pass to him on the net. On the left, most passes have to go completely past him to shoot, giving the defense and goaltender time to react. They also need to find a right-shooting playmaker to play the left point, perhaps maybe trying one of the Callin brothers there since they have no right-shooting defensemen available.
Be that as it may, the Railers’ second power play unit converted on Worcester’s second power play chance, with Cam Berg tipping Michael Suda’s shot past Lions netminder Hunter Jones at 14:18 of the first for the 1-0 lead. Matt DeMelis had the assist on the goal that went to a long review before being called good.
With the goal, Berg became the first player in Worcester pro hockey history to score on his first three shots with the team. Berg’s fourth shot did not go in, ending his streak there.
Halfway through the second period, DeMelis scored a nice goal with his back to the net. Gabe Blanchard and Gleb Veremyev had the helpers, but it really was all DeMelis, just surprising Jones with an unexpectedly quick shot.
DeMelis would light the lamp again, with 3:10 left on the clock, when a centering feed by Veremyev hit him and then bounded into the net. Despite DeMelis’ claims to Bill Ballou (linked below) that he didn’t know what happened after the puck hit him, it sure looked like he punched the puck into the net.
Not that Lions defender Jacob Paquette’s opinion matters much, but he immediately protests to referee Julien Lapointe. Referee Lapointe never actually signals if it’s good or not, and instead indicates that it was going to be reviewed. Almost exactly six minutes later, with no original call apparently being made, it was ruled no goal. This writer thinks they got it right, but there should have been a call made before going to replay.
With under a minute to go and the teams playing four on four, the Lions would tie it after a pass from DeMelis to Anthony Repaci was intercepted, and Trois-Rivières went back the other way three on two. Calle Odelius, who was in the Lions zone during the turnover, showed almost no effort and skated back about as fast as I’m moving with a walker, barely beating Repaci back to the play despite Repaci having to get up after being knocked down.
It stayed 2-1 Railers late into the third when Jones was pulled for an extra attacker, and because Worcester played passively and backed off the Lions’ puck carriers, Trois-Rivières was eventually able to knot the score when all five Railers players screened Tristan Lennox, who had no chance on Riley Kidney’s bid at 18:20.
Former Railers forward Mathias Laferrière would win it for the Lions at 5:24 of overtime on the kind of three-on-three goal teams are supposed to score on.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Khristian Acosta (3-day IR), MacAuley Carson, Michael Ferrandino (14-day IR/Unknown), Connor Federkow, Thomas Gale, Anthony Hora (14-day IR/Lower body), and Ross Mitton (14-day IR/Upper body). Parker Gahagen was the backup goaltender.
With the overtime loss, the Railers have now thrown away 14 points this season, a number that, added to their current total, would put them in second place in the division. In addition to throwing away points, in just games against Worcester, Trois-Rivières has five more points than it should have. Adirondack and Maine have two extras each. At the end of the season, should the Railers not make the playoffs, gifting points and throwing points away is going to be the reason.
With his three shots in the game, Railers captain Anthony Repaci became just the second player in Worcester pro hockey history to have over 900 shots on goal in his city career. His 902 shots are second on the career list, and you get no points for guessing the top spot belongs to Terry Virtue, with 964. Repaci is averaging just over three shots a game this season, which would be enough to catch Virtue by season’s end.
In checking out the two Worcester hockey Alumni playing in the Olympics, former WorSharks forward Tom Hertl is scoreless in two games played for Czechia, taking eight shots and has a plus-1 rating. Former Railers forward Nick Saracino has played two games for Italy, with two shots and a minus-2 rating on a team that has the worst goal differential in the Olympics at minus-15. And while looking up some other info, I found this humorous story, and thought I’d share.
The three stars of the game were
1. TR – #20 Mathias Laferrière
2. WOR – #37 Matt DeMelis
3. WOR – #12 Cam Berg
The 210Sports Player of the Game was Tristan Lennox.
Even Strength Lines
Repaci / Miotto / Hatten
Donhauser / A.Callin / D.Callin
Veremyev / DeMelis / Berg
Piercey / Dorrington / Ginnell
Pulkkinen / Samuelsson
McDonald / Suda
Odelius / Blanchard
Press Releases
RAILERS: Railers grab OT point in 3-2 loss to Lions
LIONS: A strong comeback led by Riley Kidney in the Lions victory
Our affiliates last night
Providence 4, Bridgeport 2
In the ECHL’s North Division last night
Maine 1, Florida 0 SO
Greensboro 7, Norfolk 4
Wheeling 6, Reading 3
Adirondack 5, Atlanta 2
BOX SCORE
Trois-Rivières 0 1 1 1 – 3
Worcester 1 1 0 0 – 2
1st Period-1, Worcester, Berg 3 (Suda, DeMelis), 14:18 (PP). Penalties-Adams-Moisan Tr (roughing), 4:33; Adams-Moisan Tr (tripping), 12:38.
2nd Period-2, Worcester, DeMelis 13 (Blanchard, Veremyev), 9:39. 3, Trois-Rivières, Gravelle 1 (Adams-Moisan), 19:06. Penalties-Callin Wor (tripping), 17:17; Dufort Tr (slashing), 18:14.
3rd Period-4, Trois-Rivières, Kidney 10 (Martin), 18:20. Penalties-Blanchard Wor (holding), 3:12; Suda Wor (tripping), 7:05.
1st OT Period-5, Trois-Rivières, Laferrière 1 (Kidney, Mianscum), 5:24. Penalties-No Penalties
Shots on Goal-Trois-Rivières 5-8-12-2-27. Worcester 11-8-6-2-27.
Power Play Opportunities-Trois-Rivières 0 / 3; Worcester 1 / 3.
Goalies-Trois-Rivières, Jones 12-5-0-0 (27 shots-25 saves). Worcester, Lennox 4-9-1-0 (27 shots-24 saves).
A-5,374
Referees-Sam Heidemann (22), Julien Lapointe (68).
Linesmen-Michael Tarquinio (45), Felix-Antoine Voyer (57).
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