Saturday afternoon saw the Worcester Railers taking on the Trois-Rivières Lions in the first of two weekend games between the North Division rivals at the Colisée Vidéotron, and while Worcester had the opening goal the Lions had the next five as the Railers had to fight from behind the rest of the way before losing 6-4, wasting MacAuley Carson’s first pro Gordie Howe hat trick.
Just under two minutes into the contest, Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane…errr…AJ Schlepp took on Landon Fuller in a fight that made absolutely no sense to anyone. Fuller had little issue with the taller Schlepp and was the victor. Referee Simon Cholette failed to call a penalty on each for removing their helmets, although in the long run it didn’t matter as, unofficially, it was Schlepp’s only shift of the game.
Early in the first period, moments after Referee Cholette failed to call Mathieu Bizier for tripping Anthony Repaci, Matt DeMelis was able to take Repaci’s centering feed and skate around Lions netminder Hunter Jones to make it 1-0 at 5:47. Drew Callin was originally credited with a secondary assist, but it was very quickly taken away.
Readers from last weekend will remember Referee Cholette and how bad he was. He was just as bad Saturday night, but really didn’t play a role in Worcester’s loss. What played the biggest role in the Railers’ loss was that they gave up five goals in just over 13 minutes of play.
Emmett Serensits began the onslaught with his first goal in 40 professional games at 10:33. Morgan Adams-Moisan followed with a power play goal at 13:45, and Israel Mianscum’s next two goals sandwiched intermission, with the first at 19:13 of the opening frame and the second at 1:37 of the middle stanza. Mark Estapa scored at 3:40, and that was it for Worcester goaltender Parker Gahagen.
In the midst of the Trois-Rivières goal run, Carson did battle with the much more seasoned Isaac Dufort and held his own. Dufort picked up an extra minor, and a minute later, a Charles Martin slash made it a five-on-three Worcester power play. The Railers’ power play was its usual awful for the stretch, not having a shot on goal with the two-man advantage.
After the Estapa tally, Michael Suda took a cross-checking penalty out of frustration, and with the way the Railers were looking, it seemed like they were seconds away from it being a 6-1 deficit. Except by the time Suda’s minor expired, Worcester had managed to cut the Lions’ four-goal lead to just two.
Carson had the first shortie, and if you were to say the goal came out of nowhere, you wouldn’t be far off. DeMelis had the lone helper at 4:20.
With just nine seconds left on Suda’s penalty, Drew Callin and Repaci combined for an odd-man rush, with Callin grabbing Railers’ second shorthanded goal of the game at 5:31.
It stayed that 5-3 score until 46 seconds into the third frame when Charles Martin beat Thomas Gale to make it 6-3. The play should have absolutely been reviewed for goaltender interference as Marin’s stick hit Gale as Martin swung to knock the puck out of the air. Was it goaltender interference? Maybe, maybe not, but absolutely something Referee Cholette should have at least looked at.
With ten minutes to go in the frame, after linesman Guillaume Ouellet incorrectly called Trois-Rivières for too many men on the ice–the video is absolutely clear they had the allowable five skaters and a goalie at even strength–Railers head coach Nick Tuzzolino pulled Gale for an extra attacker.
What followed was over nine minutes of six Worcester skaters against four, and then five, Lions. And while it generated a bunch of shots, the inept Worcester power play isn’t any better with six skaters than it is with five, and could only manage one goal, by Ross Mitton, at 18:40. Calle Odelius and Carson had the helpers as Carson clinched the Gordie Howe hat trick.
With the loss, Worcester is now seven points behind Reading for the final playoff spot, with 19 games remaining.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Anthony Callin, Connor Federkow, Riley Ginnell (3-day IR), Anthony Hora (14-day IR/Lower body), and Tristan Lennox. Thomas Gale began the backup goaltender and went in in relief of Parker Gahagen at 3:40 of the second period.
For transactions this week, on Tuesday forward Gleb Veremyev and defenseman Jesse Pulkkinen were reassigned to Bridgeport from Worcester by the New York Islanders. And that’s it. Entering Saturday’s game, Worcester has the 25th-ranked offense, and over their last 21 games, the Railers’ power play is just seven for 66 (10.6%) as the fourth and final power play spot in the North Division gets slowly further away. It wouldn’t take much of a look to see that a couple of the roster spots could be used in a better fashion. Hopefully, General Manager Nick Tuzzolino decides to take a gander soon. The ECHL trade deadline is Thursday, March 19 at 3pm ET.
In a scoring change from last week, add an assist to Anthony Callin on brother Drew’s game-winning goal Friday night in Trois-Rivières. That goal now reads, “3, Worcester, Callin 19 (Donhauser, Callin), 12:00”. The Lions never fixed the three-star listing for that game, so the younger Callin gets the #1 star and the elder gets nothing for the goal. One scoring change we anticipated for Maine was Colin Felix eventually earning the secondary assist on Liam Gorman’s Saturday night goal in place of goaltender Brad Arvanitis, but since that did not happen, we can only assume the Mariners didn’t seek a correction. An oddity that will soon be forgotten.
Friday night was an interesting evening for the Railers AHL affiliate, the Bridgeport Islanders, as not one but two huge brawls broke out in the third period. FloHockey has graciously put together a montage of the action, which we will gladly share with everyone.
But that wasn’t the only great hockey fight Friday night, and we’ll turn our attention to the Beausejour Senior Hockey League in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, where the Dalhousie Marauders visited the Miramichi Northmen and had an absolutely amazing third-period fight that partially took place in a penalty box. And, of course, we’ve got multiple videos…
The three stars of the game were
1. TR – #19 Israel Mianscum
2. TR – #91 Anthony Beauregard
3. TR – #32 Morgan Adams-Moisan
The 210Sports Player of the Game is MacAuley Carson.
Even Strength Lines
Repaci / DeMelis / D.Callin
Donhauser / Miotto / Mitton
Piercey / Carson / Hatten
Schlepp / Dorrington / Acosta
Samuelsson / Ferrandino
McDonald / Blanchard
Suda / Odelius
Press Releases
RAILERS: Worcester comeback falls short in 6-4 loss to Lions
LIONS: The Lions put on an offensive showcase
Our affiliates last night
NY Islanders 2, San Jose 1 OT
Bridgeport 4, Providence 1
In the ECHL’s North Division last night
Wheeling 3, Rapid City 1
Norfolk 3, Idaho 1
Reading 2, Greensboro 1
BOX SCORE
Worcester 1 2 1 – 4
Trois-Rivières 3 2 1 – 6
1st Period-1, Worcester, DeMelis 15 (Repaci), 5:47. 2, Trois-Rivières, Serensits 1 (Laferrière, Estapa), 10:33. 3, Trois-Rivières, Adams-Moisan 12 (Bizier, Beauregard), 13:45 (PP). 4, Trois-Rivières, Mianscum 9 (Louis-Jean, Beauregard), 19:13. Penalties-Schlepp Wor (fighting – major), 1:57; Fuller Tr (fighting – major), 1:57; Callin Wor (hooking), 12:21; Carson Wor (fighting – major), 15:01; Dufort Tr (roughing, fighting – major), 15:01; Martin Tr (slashing), 16:13.
2nd Period-5, Trois-Rivières, Mianscum 10 (Beauregard, Girouard), 1:37. 6, Trois-Rivières, Estapa 6 (Paquette), 3:40. 7, Worcester, Carson 2 (DeMelis), 4:20 (SH). 8, Worcester, Callin 21 (Repaci), 5:31 (SH). Penalties-Suda Wor (cross-checking), 3:40.
3rd Period-9, Trois-Rivières, Martin 11 (Adams-Moisan, Desruisseaux), 0:46. 10, Worcester, Mitton 4 (Odelius, Carson), 18:40. Penalties-Beauregard Tr (slashing), 7:13; served by Beauregard Tr (bench – too many men), 9:20.
Shots on Goal-Worcester 7-15-17-39. Trois-Rivières 14-12-4-30.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 0 / 4; Trois-Rivières 1 / 2.
Goalies-Worcester, Gahagen 14-7-4-0 (17 shots-12 saves); Gale 1-3-0-0 (13 shots-12 saves). Trois-Rivières, Jones 15-6-0-0 (39 shots-35 saves).
A-2,237
Referees-Simon Cholette (54), -.
Linesmen-Jasmin Boutet (89), Guillaume Ouellet (51).
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