The Worcester Railers, after suffering two painful losses to Maine, hosted the Adirondack Thunder on Sunday at the DCU Center, and after a slow start, finally found their feet, scoring three consecutive goals in a 4-3 win over the Thunder.
It was as it has been for a lot of recent Worcester games, as the Thunder jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead at 2:47 when Ross Mitton showed very little ice vision and got leveled by Thunder forward Grant Loven. Brannon McManus picked up the loose puck and beat Railers netminder Thomas Gale glove side. It looked like the goal should be unassisted, but Loven could have touched the puck after blasting Mitton. Luke Reid should enjoy the totally gifted point.
Unlike what’s happened in recent games, the Railers came right back to tie the game when Anthony Repaci fired a hard backhand centering pass from the right of Thunder netminder Jeremy Brodeur into the slot. The puck hit a couple of players, including Anthony Callin, before it crossed the goal line, and it was 1-1 at 3:41.
Adirondack would retake the lead at 14:21 on a backdoor goal after Ryan Miotto was outmuscled by Dylan Wendt, who then tipped Ryan Wheeler’s pass past Gale as the Railers two defenders looked like they’d never played hockey before.
A few moments after the goal, Max Dorrington and Jackson van de Leest decided they had a disagreement that needed settling, and had one of the better scraps of the year.
Newcomer Max Ruoho picked up his fourth minor penalty in seven periods to end the first frame, and 21 seconds after killing off that Thunder power play bid, Miotto evened the score 2-2 with a nice blast in close after a feed from Lincoln Hatten.
With 15.6 seconds left in the middle period, the Railers finally got some puck luck when Thunder defenseman Jeremy Hanzel attempted to clear away a loose puck after a failed Worcester four-on-two bid, and accidentally banked it off Adirondack forward Tyson Fawcett and into the net. Repaci was the last Railers’ player to touch it, so he gets credit for the goal. Ruoho and Declan McDonnell were given assists.
It was Repaci’s 113th Railers goal, but only the sixth time in his Railers career that he scored on his only registered shot of the game.
Early in the third, Riley Piercey gave Worcester a little breathing room when he tipped Matt DeMelis’ point shot past Brodeur. Adam Samuelsson had the secondary assist.
That goal proved huge as at 11:16 Justin Taylor tipped Patrick Grasso’s blast from the point past Gale to cut the Worcester lead to 4-3.
When Brian Carrabes was given a match penalty for slew-footing, which this writer originally missed, but it can be seen on the video–it looked like it would be smooth sailing the rest of the way for Worcester. But referees David Lilly and Julien Lapointe had other ideas, at one point turning a Railers major power play into a four-on-three penalty kill.
Eventually, it all worked out in Worcester’s favor as time expired with the 4-3 score still on the video board. Despite the win, the Railers have now gone 38 power play chances in a row without a goal, certainly a Worcester pro hockey record and one would have to think would be one of the longest, if not the longest, in ECHL history.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Gabe Blanchard (14-day IR/Upper body), Drew Callin (14-day IR/Lower body), Dalton Duhart, Max Dukovac, Connor Federkow (14-day IR/Lower body), Michael Ferrandino (3-day IR), Riley Ginnell (14-day IR/Lower body), Anthony Hora (14-day IR/Lower body), and Tristan Lennox. William Lavallière was the backup goaltender.
After being on the wrong end of several trades over the years where players elected not to report to the Railers, the lack of news on Dalton Duhart was getting worrisome for Worcester fans. But, alas, those fears appear to be unwarranted as Sunday’s transactions list Duhart as being placed on the Railers reserve list. To make room for him on the roster, Michael Ferrandino was moved to the 3-day IR slot.
Worcester’s signings from last week were quiet on the scoresheet over the weekend. Still, despite that, Railers’ General Manager Nick Tuzzolino may have found a couple of useful pieces for next season. Goaltender William Lavallière, who has bounced around the low minors over the last few seasons, has generally played well in every one of his stops. But he’s always been the odd man out when each team’s goaltending situation stabilizes. His one poor stop with the Macon Mayhem in 2023-24 looks to be the team around him, as no goaltender with any significant number of games played had a good season, including former Railers netminders Josh Boyko and Jimmy Poreda. Brody Claeys, who also played for the Railers, was 2-2-1 with the team despite a .938 save percentage. That’s probably all you need to know. The second player is forward Anton Rubtsov. It’s tough for an offensive player to jump from the FPHL to the ECHL, but watching Rubtsov, you can see he has really good puck sense and is quick both with and without the puck. He will need to work on his backchecking, but I think with a full training camp, he could become a key player next season.
The NCAA announced the four teams taking part in the Worcester Regional at the DCU Center next weekend. #1 Michigan St. (25-8-2) will take on #4 UConn (20-12-5) on Thursday at 1:30 p.m., followed by #2 Dartmouth (23-7-4) and #3 Wisconsin (21-12-2) at 5:00 p.m.. The opener is scheduled for ESPN2, while the second matchup will be on ESPNU. The two winners will face off on ESPN2 on Saturday, with a start time to be determined. Other New England teams in the tournament include Bentley, the #4 seed in the Albany Region, who will play the tournament’s top seed, Michigan. #2 Providence and #3 Quinnipiac will face off in the Sioux Falls Regional, where #4 Merrimack will take on #1 North Dakota.
In a tease for next weekend, we’ve got one player–no bonus points guessing who that might be–closing in on another Worcester pro career mark, and another who is one game shy of tying a consecutive games mark that was set in the Railers inaugural campaign of 2017-18. Good luck guessing that player and stat.
The three stars of the game were
1. WOR – #81 Anthony Repaci
2. WOR – #33 Thomas Gale
3. ADK – #39 Brannon McManus
The 210Sports Player of the Game is Anthony Callin.
Even Strength Lines
Repaci / A.Callin / McDonnell
Carson / DeMelis / Piercey
Donhauser / Miotto / Hatten
Rubtsov / Dorrington / Mitton
Suda / Pulkkinen
McDonald / Ruoho
Samuelsson / Jean-Louis
Press Releases
RAILERS: Railers hold off Thunder in 4-3 Sunday win
THUNDER: Railers slip by Thunder 4-3
Our affiliates last night
NY Islanders 1, Columbus 0
Bridgeport 6, Hershey 3
In the ECHL’s North Division last night
Norfolk 3, Greensboro 2 OT
Maine 4, Reading 0
Wheeling 3, Trois-Rivières 1
BOX SCORE
Adirondack 2 0 1 – 3
Worcester 1 2 1 – 4
1st Period-1, Adirondack, McManus 26 (Loven, Reid), 2:47. 2, Worcester, Callin 17 (Repaci, Jean-Louis), 3:41. 3, Adirondack, Wendt 7 (Wheeler, McManus), 14:21. Penalties-Ruoho Wor (holding), 5:14; McDonald Wor (tripping), 7:45; van de Leest Adk (fighting – major), 14:48; Dorrington Wor (fighting – major), 14:48; Hanzel Adk (holding), 18:08; Ruoho Wor (high-sticking), 20:00.
2nd Period-4, Worcester, Miotto 11 (Hatten), 2:21. 5, Worcester, Repaci 19 (Ruoho, McDonnell), 19:44. Penalties-Jean-Louis Wor (roughing), 5:12; Callin Wor (cross-checking), 12:45; Hatten Wor (roughing), 20:00.
3rd Period-6, Worcester, Piercey 7 (DeMelis, Samuelsson), 3:52. 7, Adirondack, Grasso 13 (Taylor, Reid), 11:16. Penalties-Grasso Adk (tripping), 8:47; Carrabes Adk (match – slew-footing), 13:58; Callin Wor (slashing), 14:30; Carson Wor (tripping), 16:12; Loven Adk (holding), 18:02.
Shots on Goal-Adirondack 10-13-7-30. Worcester 12-8-6-26.
Power Play Opportunities-Adirondack 0 / 8; Worcester 0 / 4.
Goalies-Adirondack, Brodeur 21-8-4-0 (26 shots-22 saves). Worcester, Gale 2-5-0-0 (30 shots-27 saves).
A-6,030
Referees-David Lilly (25), Julien Lapointe (68).
Linesmen-Cody Sullivan (82), Noah Merrow (57).
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