Saturday night, the Worcester Railers took on the Reading Royals for the first of two must-win-in-regulation games at Santander Arena this weekend, and needed every single one of Parker Gahagen’s 41 saves to defeat the Royals 5-2.
For the first 40 minutes of the game, the ice was tilted completely toward the Railers end and Gahagen. The Amherst, NY native made save after save while Worcester was unable to gain any offensive momentum at all. In the opening period, the Railers had just three shots, none of them in succession, and still managed to score first and have the game tied 1-1 after twenty minutes.
With the shots 6-0 Reading, Jesse Pulkkinen gave Worcester its first lead of the game with an absolute laser over the right shoulder of Royals goaltender Yaniv Perets at 7:35, with assists going to Riley Piercey and MacAuley Carson.
Reading would knot the game 1-1 on a power play goal by Connor McMenamin at 10:54 after Connor Federkow threw an ill-advised high hit against Austin Saint.
It was more of the same in the second frame as Worcester was outshot 17-7 but still managed to end the frame with a 2-1 lead. With the Royals having a 24-4 shot advantage, Matt DeMelis scored on the Railers’ second shot of the middle stanza, two seconds after Cam McDonald’s first, at 7:01. A secondary assist for Carson was added during the second intermission.
Fifty-nine seconds into the third period, the Railers got a little breathing room when newcomer Declan McDonnell scored his first professional goal, with assists going to Anthony Repaci and Pulkkinen. Repaci grabbed the puck for McDonnell.
That goal proved to be big as under a minute later, Yvan Mongo cut the Railers’ lead to 3-2 with a very nice goal where Xavier Jean-Louis, playing his first pro game, looked a little out of sorts against the much more experienced Mongo.
Riley Piercey’s goal at 5:56 required a video review to determine that Max Dorrington’s shot hit Piercey and went in before Piercey hit Perets.
From there Reading threw everything they had at Gahagen and the Railers–as if they weren’t doing that before–and Piercey’s second of the game into an empty net gave Worcester a much-needed 5-2 regulation win.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Gabe Blanchard (14-day IR/Upper body), Drew Callin (14-day IR/Lower body), Cole Donhauser (suspended, game 1 of 2), Michael Ferrandino, Riley Ginnell (14-day IR/Lower body), Anthony Hora (14-day IR/Lower body), Tristan Lennox, and AJ Schlepp (3-day IR). Thomas Gale was the backup goaltender.
The Railers may be about to get some more bad news concerning an injury, as defenseman Connor Federkow went down late in the third period with a non-contact knee injury. Federkow’s knee bent awkwardly as he skated backwards on defense, fell, struggled to get to his feet, and managed to get to the front of the net just as Parker Gahagen made a save to stop play. Federkow was having such an issue staying on his feet that Royals forward Yvan Mongo, who was about to engage to perhaps cause a bit of shenanigans, backed away when it was obvious Federkow was hurt. The defenseman ultimately needed help getting to the Worcester bench.
As a fan of color vs color games, we would be remiss if we didn’t mention that the Railers’ orange jerseys would have looked great against the green St. Patrick’s jerseys the Reading Royals were wearing. Seeing as how popular they are, teams should be doing everything they can to play more color vs color games. But, alas, that doesn’t happen.
On Thursday, the ECHL suspended Railers forward Cole Donhauser for two games for, officially, his game misconduct for violating Rule 23.9.iii. “Uses language, taunts or gestures that are deemed discriminatory or derogatory in nature including race, gender, religion and sexual orientation.” His gesture, which can be seen on the video if one cares to look, would be best described as “not family friendly” once you understand the context, but certainly nothing close to what might come to mind when you read that rule. It was a dumb thing to do, and Donhauser shouldn’t have done it, but the two games are well-deserved for his brain-cramp “boys will be boys” moment.
Also on Thursday, Railers general manager Nick Tuzzolino dipped back into the college ranks and signed defenseman Xavier Jean-Louis out of Ferris State University. The 6-foot-5-inch, 212-pound defenseman recorded seven goals and 14 assists for 21 points across two seasons for the Bulldogs. Before that, Jean-Louis played for the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, notching seven points in 39 games for the Nanooks in two seasons.
Thursday morning, I was adding some information on newcomers Declan McDonnell and Max Dukovac to my spreadsheets and stumbled into a couple of factoids for each of them. I passed the one about Dukovac along to broadcaster Tim Foley because it included another Railers’ player, and decided to keep the one involving McDonnell. The Buffalo, New York native was the 217th (by the Tampa Bay Lightning) and final pick in the 2020 entry draft, dubbed “NHL Entry Draft Mr. Irrelevant” by Elite Pro Prospects as they copy the nickname given to the final pick in the annual NFL Draft, starting in 1976. He is the second such “NHL Entry Draft Mr. Irrelevant” in Worcester pro hockey history, following Lauri Kinos, who was the 293rd pick (by the St Louis Blues) in the 2000 entry draft. Kinos played 21 games for the Worcester IceCats over two seasons before heading overseas, ultimately retiring after the 2011-12 season.
We don’t usually mention modest scoring streaks for the Railers here–we let others worry about such things–but occasionally a streak elsewhere catches this writer’s eye and feels it’s worth mentioning. Mentioning a Worcester pro hockey alumnus with a two-game assist streak seems like it might be a waste of column space, but when the player is goaltender Ken Appleby, that does raise some eyebrows. Appleby, now with the Cincinnati Cyclones, had an assist Friday night on an overtime game winner and Saturday night on an empty-net goal. Appleby has three assists on the season, tying his career high set in 2022-23 when he played for, of course, the Worcester Railers.
The three stars of the game were
1. WOR – #40 Parker Gahagen
2. WOR – #19 Riley Piercey
3. WOR – #24 Jesse Pulkkinen
The 210Sports Player of the Game is MacAuley Carson.
Even Strength Lines
Repaci / A.Callin / McDonnell
Carson / DeMelis / Piercey
Dukovac / Miotto / Mitton
Acosta / Dorrington / Hatten
Suda / Pulkkinen
McDonald / Federkow
Samuelsson / Jean-Louis
Press Releases
RAILERS: Worcester opens weekend with 5-2 win over Royals
ROYALS: None at posting time
Our affiliates last night
NY Islanders 3, Calgary 2
Charlotte 2, Bridgeport 0
In the ECHL’s North Division last night
Wheeling 4, Adirondack 2
Trois-Rivières 6, Greensboro 0
Maine 3, Norfolk 2 OT
BOX SCORE
Worcester 1 1 3 – 5
Reading 1 0 1 – 2
1st Period-1, Worcester, Pulkkinen 8 (Piercey, Carson), 7:35. 2, Reading, McMenamin 9 (Saigeon, Willets), 10:54 (PP). Penalties-Federkow Wor (roughing), 9:21; Samuelsson Wor (roughing), 10:34; Haskins Rea (roughing), 10:34.
2nd Period-3, Worcester, DeMelis 16 (McDonald, Carson), 7:01. Penalties-Miotto Wor (interference), 12:08; Gendron Rea (cross-checking), 15:07; Miotto Wor (boarding), 18:18.
3rd Period-4, Worcester, McDonnell 1 (Repaci, Pulkkinen), 0:59. 5, Reading, Mongo 2 (Saint, Meehan), 1:55. 6, Worcester, Piercey 5 (Dorrington), 5:56. 7, Worcester, Piercey 6 18:57 (EN). Penalties-Jean-Louis Wor (holding), 6:59; McDonald Wor (roughing), 8:31; Saint Rea (roughing), 8:31; Devine Rea (holding), 12:36.
Shots on Goal-Worcester 3-7-13-23. Reading 14-17-12-43.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 0 / 2; Reading 1 / 4.
Goalies-Worcester, Gahagen 15-8-4-1 (43 shots-41 saves). Reading, Perets 11-8-1-1 (22 shots-18 saves).
A-4,299
Referees-Evan Reddick (21), -.
Linesmen-Rich Jondo (75), Terrence Johnson (86).
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