Friday night, the Worcester Railers began their three-in-three weekend with a matchup against the Trois-Rivières Lions at Colisée Vidéotron in Quebec, and used 33 saves from goaltender Parker Gahagen to steal a 2-1 victory over their ECHL North Division rivals.
The first period was pretty much all Lions, as at one point early on, Trois-Rivières was on a pace for 72 shots for the game, but Gahagen looked like a sheet of plywood in front of the goal, stopping all 18 shots he saw in the frame. Worcester could get very little offense going in the opening period, and what little they got resulted in no second-chance bids.
Until, all of a sudden, it was 1-0 Railers with 90 seconds left in the stanza. It was MacAuley Carson forcing the turnover, and Riley Piercey flipping a backhander over the glove of Benjamin Gaudreau.
Early in the second period, after Lions defender Jacob Dion tried to lay an open-ice hit on Max Dorrington but instead got jacked up by the Railers forward, Sean Gulka challenged Dorrington to do battle. Hockey is a contact sport, and fighting after a clean hit has become the biggest joke in the game. It’s literally why the instigator minor exists, and it should be called every time it happens. This writer is all for a good scrap, but your teammate doing something stupid isn’t a good reason to fight the other guy.
Based on the Railers special teams as of late, perhaps it’s a good thing they didn’t get a power play after the fight, as on their next power play Worcester allowed a shorthanded goal by Jacob Paquette when after the Lions cleared the puck into the neutral zone the Railers forwards lollygagged to the bench on a line change, resulting in an eventual odd man rush, where Paquette was left all alone to fire one past Gahagen.
After a couple of odd-man rushes for Worcester were turned aside by Gaudreau, Drew Callin finally connected on one, with eight minutes left to go in the middle period, and his highlight goal made it 2-1 Railers.
Everyone notice that Callin trucked over Gaudreau just as Callin scored? That’s the time you’re supposed to stand up for your teammate, but not a single Lions player even skates toward the Railers alternate captain. That’s what makes the first kind of fight such a joke.
From there, it was all Gahagen as he made that one-goal lead stand up for the next 28 minutes to put two more points in Worcester’s pocket.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Michael Ferrandino (14-day IR/Unknown), Connor Federkow, Riley Ginnell (3-day IR), Anthony Hora (14-day IR/Lower body), Tristan Lennox, Ross Mitton (14-day IR/Upper body), and Achiel Schlepp. Thomas Gale was the backup goaltender.
It was a slow week for Railers transactions, with Railers GM Nick Tuzzolino dipping into the FPHL to pick up fighter Achiel “AJ” Schlepp on Wednesday and Jesse Pulkkinen being reassigned to Worcester on Thursday after being recalled to the AHL last week for no apparent reason. Schlepp isn’t likely to see any action until Sunday against Adirondack, when he will get a chance to fight Jacob Graves and/or Daniel Amesbury. When he does play, he will be the tallest player in the city’s pro history at 6’8″.
Thanks to ECHL scheduling, the Railers had to make what this writer calls a “mad dash” from Trois-Rivières after the game and spend six-ish hours on a bus getting back to Worcester for the Railers matchup against Maine on Saturday night. The Mariners also had a bus ride to make, only theirs was from Adirondack, a much easier trip. The new CBA eliminated long bus rides between games, capping the distance at 325 miles starting next season. The distance from Trois-Rivières to Worcester? 366 miles, give or take.
That long bus ride likely played a role in who Worcester’s backup goaltender is this weekend. We’ll confirm this with the Railers Saturday, but there’s a near 100% chance that Tristan Lennox did not make the trip to Quebec, and was instead nestled in his bed long before the Railers got back to the city. On Saturday, against Maine, Lennox and Parker Gahagen will likely switch spots on the reserve list, with Thomas Gale remaining as the backup. On Sunday against Adirondack, it will probably be Gahagen in the net again, with either of the other two netminders backing him up.
In scoring changes from last weekend in Rapid City, add an assist to Michael Suda on Anthony Repaci’s overtime goal on Friday. That goal now reads “9, Worcester, Repaci 15 (DeMelis, Suda), 0:59.” Suda does not get a “plus” on the goal as he had changed with Calle Odelius prior to the goal being scored. For Saturday’s game, add an assist for Khristian Acosta on MacAuley Carson’s first-period goal. That goal now reads “2, Worcester, Carson 1 (Odelius, Acosta), 9:23.”
For the back half of the season, teams are supposed to wear white on the road, but the Railers were in blue Friday night in Trois-Rivières as the Lions wore a very slick-looking white affiliation jersey based on the Montreal Canadiens 2016 Winter Classic sweaters. As a Bruins fan, I’m supposed to be automatically opposed to everything Canadiens, but those Lions’ jerseys were very well done. An unnamed Railers front office person–who are we kidding? It’s Connor Haynes–said, “I hate that I like those”. And, well, we agree.
The three stars of the game were
1. WOR – #4 Anthony Callin
2. TR – #6 Jacob Paquette
3. WOR – #35 Parker Gahagen
Seeing as the folks in Trois-Rivières clicked the wrong button and listed Anthony Callin the #1 star as opposed to the correct selection of Drew, we’ll give the 210Sports Player of the Game to Drew Callin.
Even Strength Lines
Repaci / DeMelis / Hatten
Donhauser / A.Callin / D.Callin
Piercey / Miotto / Carson
Veremyev / Dorrington / Acosta
Pulkkinen / Samuelsson
McDonald / Blanchard
Suda / Odelius
Press Releases
RAILERS: Railers tame Lions in 2-1 road victory
LIONS: Lions fall 2-1 in affiliation game
Our affiliates last night
No games scheduled
In the ECHL’s North Division last night
Wheeling 7, Kalamazoo 2
Reading 4, Greenville 1
Greensboro 5, Norfolk 3
Maine 5, Adirondack 0
BOX SCORE
Worcester 1 1 0 – 2
Trois-Rivières 0 1 0 – 1
1st Period-1, Worcester, Piercey 3 (Carson), 18:30. Penalties-Dorrington Wor (holding the stick), 13:30.
2nd Period-2, Trois-Rivières, Paquette 4 (Dufort, Kidney), 6:18 (SH). 3, Worcester, Callin 19 (Donhauser), 12:00. Penalties-Dorrington Wor (fighting – major), 3:46; Gulka Tr (fighting – major), 3:46; Beauregard Tr (holding), 4:25.
3rd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Acosta Wor (roughing), 13:49; Mianscum Tr (roughing), 13:49.
Shots on Goal-Worcester 7-11-12-30. Trois-Rivières 18-9-7-34.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 0 / 1; Trois-Rivières 0 / 1.
Goalies-Worcester, Gahagen 13-6-4-0 (34 shots-33 saves). Trois-Rivières, Gaudreau 6-11-0-3 (30 shots-28 saves).
A-3,420
Referees-Dominic Cadieux (3), -.
Linesmen-Maxime Carre (77), Ben Fortin (44).
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