The Worcester Railers hosted the Norfolk Admirals on Wednesday night at the DCU Center, and once again found themselves down by multiple goals early, and they couldn’t recover in a 5-2 loss. The Railers now trail fourth-place Reading by eight points, and perhaps worse, now sixth-place Trois-Rivières is within their games in hand to catch Worcester.
Amazingly, the Railers keep making the same mistakes. The dump-and-chase style they’re using virtually never works, and is perhaps the worst thing you can do when your team doesn’t win puck battles. And no one wearing a Worcester jersey this season consistently wins puck battles. Add to that, since February 1st, the penalty kill is almost outscoring the power play as the Railers have three shorties while scoring just four with the man advantage.
So, for anyone wondering why this team can’t gain any momentum in a playoff push, there are your answers right there.
Norfolk made it 1-0 just 3:25 into the contest when all five Railers skaters were watching Brady Fleurent behind the Worcester net, and not one forward decided to peek behind them to see Brandon Osmundson racing through the slot completely uncovered. Osmundson’s shot broke through Railers netminder Parker Gahagen for the quick lead.
With seven minutes to go in the opening period, referee Sam Heidemann called Ryan Miotto for holding in one of those penalties that often doesn’t get called, and then, when there were nine seconds left in that penalty, Evan Reddick called Matt DeMelis for an obvious–and completely unnecessary–holding penalty in the neutral zone.
Jaydon Dureau would score six seconds into that two-man advantage to make it 2-0. By comparison, the Railers had a five-on-three advantage at the end of the second period, couldn’t keep it in the attacking zone the entire time, and managed just a single shot that wouldn’t be called a scoring chance, and any pro goaltender with a pulse would have made the save on.
While Norfolk had a 15-5 shot advantage in the opening frame, they would only get four in the second period. Unfortunately, two went in to make it 4-0 Norfolk.
Carson Musser would make it 3-0 Admirals when Norfolk broke in on a four-on-three rush, and the back-checkers were slow to cover the defenseman. His one-timer beat a screened Gahagen at 4:10. After another failed Worcester power play, Marko Reifenberger made it 4-0 on a breakaway when none of the five Railers on the ice decided to pay attention to Reifenberger coming out of the penalty box, something they teach PeeWees to do.
With just under seven minutes to go in the game, Cole Donhauser got buried with a two-handed crosscheck by Brehdan Engum that Referee Heidemann decided not to call despite it happening right in front of him. He was quick to raise his arm when Donhauser got to his feet and took exception. Donhauser was also ejected for “abuse of officials”, which cannot be seen on the FloHockey video.
It took 53:47 of play for the Railers to finally beat Isaac Poulter when MacAuley Carson followed up Max Dorrington’s shorthanded bid and slid one home.
Fourteen seconds after the Carson shortie, Fleurent would score on the power play to make it 5-1 when the puck banked off the stick of Connor Federkow and went five-hole on Thomas Gale, who replaced Gahagen to start the third period.
Under a minute later, Jesse Pulkkinen would add a nice goal, with assists to Michael Suda and Ross Mitton, for what would be the 5-2 final.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Khristian Acosta, Drew Callin (14-day IR/Lower body), Michael Ferrandino, Riley Ginnell (14-day IR/unknown), Anthony Hora (14-day IR/Lower body), Tristan Lennox, and AJ Schlepp (3-day IR). Thomas Gale was the backup goaltender and entered the game to start the third period.
It was bad news on Tuesday when Worcester added their leading goal scorer, Drew Callin, to the 14-day Injured Reserve list with a lower-body injury. The elder Callin, who is second on the Railers in points behind captain Anthony Repaci, suffered an injury during the second period Sunday in Worcester’s 4-3 shootout loss to Trois-Rivières after being fallen on while down on the ice. Based on past history with the team, the speed at which Callin was added to the IR list is worrisome. The earliest he could play in a game is during the Railers’ trip to Wheeling to end the month.
This is where we would normally list last week’s scoring changes, but for the first time in a long while with Worcester on the road, there weren’t any. We’re used to that for games at the DCU Center, where the scorers are very good at what they do, but in other North Division buildings, they tend to be slightly less than perfect.
On Monday, defensemen Jesse Pulkkinen and Calle Odelius switched places, with Pulkkinen re-assigned from Bridgeport to Worcester and Odelius heading from the Railers to the AHL Islanders. On Tuesday, Worcester GM Nick Tuzzolino dipped into the college ranks to sign forwards Declan McDonnell and Max Dukovac. Both signings look interesting, and if folks want to know more about them, they can check out Railers press release.
Also on Monday, the ECHL announced they approved the request of the Iowa Heartlanders’ Membership for a Voluntary Suspension for the 2026-27 Season. There had been rumors of a team seeking to take next season off almost as soon as the new CBA was approved, and when the Heartlanders didn’t begin renewing 2026-27 season tickets in became obvious which team it was. Worcester fans know the pain of losing a team, and barring some sort of miracle, that’s likely going to happen to the Heartlanders. They’ve averaged under 2,000 fans per game in four of their five seasons in the ECHL, and face a massive uphill climb to make a franchise in Coralville, Iowa financially successful. It’s probably more likely that the franchise will eventually be sold and moved.
We looked at the happenings in Holy Cross hockey in Monday morning’s post, so now let’s take a gander at some of the other Worcester area NCAA teams. Over at Worcester State, the Women’s team was the winners of the MASCAC Championship, defeating Framingham State 4-0 in the semi-finals before beating Rivier 3-2 in the final at Worcester Ice last Friday. The Lancers entered the third period of the championship game down 2-1, but got a power play goal from Leyla Tiernan and the eventual game-winner from Madelyn Franta in the third for the victory. Kelsey Czerniawski, who was 14-6-0 with a 1.33 goals against and a .957 save percentage, made 29 saves for the win. The Men’s team lost 4-0 to Westfield State in the MASCAC quarterfinal. It was the same Westfield State that Anna Maria would beat 3-0 in the MASCAC Men’s Ice Hockey Championship. Goaltender Matthew Hennessey was named the MASCAC Men’s Ice Hockey Championship Most Valuable Player after making an impressive 48 saves to preserve the shutout and secure the title. The AMCATS will face the Wisconsin-Stout Blue Devils, champions of the WIAC, in Menomonie, Wisconsin, in the opening round of the Division III NCAA Ice Hockey tournament on Saturday, March 14. The Assumption University Men’s ice hockey team won the Northeast 10 Conference Championship for the second time in three seasons, and their third in five seasons, following a 5-4 win over Saint Anselm College, Saturday evening at the Worcester Ice Center. Jonathan Surrette had two goals and an assist in the championship game while Michael Salvatore made 54 saves on 58 shots. For the Greyhound Women, second-seeded Assumption fell to the third-seeded Saint Anselm College 2-1 in the New England Women’s Hockey Alliance Tournament Semifinals last week. They finished the season with a 19-16-3 record.
The three stars of the game were
1. NOR – #26 Killian Kiecker-Olson
2. NOR – #30 Isaac Poulter
3. NOR – #26 Brandon Osmundson
The 210Sports Player of the Game is MacAuley Carson.
Even Strength Lines
Repaci / DeMelis / Hatten
Donhauser / Miotto / Mitton
Piercey / A.Callin / Carson
Dukovac / Dorrington / McDonnell
Pulkkinen / Samuelsson
Federkow / Blanchard
McDonald / Suda
Press Releases
RAILERS: Worcester falls to Admirals 5-2 in Wednesday tilt
ADMIRALS: Admirals steamroll Railers for second straight victory
Our affiliates last night
No games scheduled
In the ECHL’s North Division last night
Reading 1, Wheeling 0
BOX SCORE
Norfolk 2 2 1 – 5
Worcester 0 0 2 – 2
1st Period-1, Norfolk, Osmundson 17 (Fleurent, Price), 3:25. 2, Norfolk, Dureau 13 (McDougall, Kiecker-Olson), 14:56 (PP). Penalties-Dureau Nor (roughing), 5:53; Hatten Wor (roughing), 5:53; Noel Nor (holding), 9:52; Miotto Wor (holding), 12:59; DeMelis Wor (holding), 14:50.
2nd Period-3, Norfolk, Musser 3 (Osmundson, Kiecker-Olson), 4:10. 4, Norfolk, Reifenberger 5 (O’Leary), 14:43. Penalties-Osmundson Nor (roughing), 4:28; Donhauser Wor (boarding, roughing), 4:28; Reifenberger Nor (high-sticking), 12:33; O’Leary Nor (holding), 18:43; Noel Nor (cross-checking), 19:23.
3rd Period-5, Worcester, Carson 4 (Dorrington), 13:47 (SH). 6, Norfolk, Fleurent 23 (Kiecker-Olson, Dureau), 14:01 (PP). 7, Worcester, Pulkkinen 7 (Suda, Mitton), 14:50. Penalties-Donhauser Wor (roughing, game misconduct – abuse of officials), 13:02.
Shots on Goal-Norfolk 15-4-5-24. Worcester 5-13-17-35.
Power Play Opportunities-Norfolk 2 / 4; Worcester 0 / 4.
Goalies-Norfolk, Poulter 19-11-0-0 (35 shots-33 saves). Worcester, Gahagen 14-8-4-1 (19 shots-15 saves); Gale 1-3-0-0 (5 shots-4 saves).
A-1,670
Referees-Evan Reddick (21), Sam Heidemann (22).
Linesmen-Jack McQuesten (53), Conor Foley (86).
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