The Worcester Railers and Reading Royals hooked up Friday night for the second of three meetings this holiday weekend at the DCU Center, and it was all about Railers goaltender Parker Gahagen, who made 36 saves on the 37 shots he faced to make Good Friday into a great Friday as he led his team to a 2-1 victory to keep Worcester’s slim playoff hopes alive.
Not only did the Railers have to deal with the Royals, but they also had to contend with referee Michael Zyla and linesmen Stephen Drain and Conor Foley, as the three combined for a litany of missed calls. In the end, all it did was add more evidence that the ECHL, at least publicly, turns a blind eye to bad officiating. As long as they have someone in stripes assigned to the game, they act as if all is good.
And there is no definition of the word “good” that would apply to the three on ice officials Friday night.
What might be slowly earning back the definition of “good” is the Worcester power play, which has suddenly gone from complete and total ineptness to something that looks like, well, an actual, professionally run power play. It was Anthony Callin with the goal as he blasted a shot off a feed from Case McCarthy past Royals goaltender Keith Petruzzelli at 6:51 of the opening period. Matt DeMelis had the secondary assist.
It was DeMelis who made it a 2-0 Worcester lead six minutes later on a goal that looks a lot like the ones the Railers tend to give up, as DeMelis found himself all alone in front of Petruzzelli. DeMelis had enough time to get the puck in a perfect shooting position, and Petruzzelli never had a chance. Cole Donhauser and Jordan Kaplan had the helpers.
It stayed that 2-0 score until halfway into the third frame thanks to big save after big save by Gahagen, perhaps none larger than on a three-zone shorthanded breakaway by Connor McMenamin.
Gahagen would lose his shutout bid at 11:37 of the final frame because all three officials on the ice missed Carson Golder’s hand pass after a face-off in the Worcester end. Whether it would have been a penalty or just a face-off in the neutral zone would depend on if the linesmen determined the face-off was completed before the handpass took place, but in any case, one actually happened, play was not stopped, and ultimately Owen McLaughlin scored.
Referee Zyla and Linesmen Drain and Foley looked like the Three Stooges talking about the missed call before the next face-off, and ultimately rubberstamped their complete whiff on the play and kept it a 2-1 Worcester lead. That play is not reviewable in the ECHL or AHL, but it is in the NHL.
For the next few minutes, Referee Zyla was essentially not needed as he ignored everything going on around him, only eventually calling Yvan Mongo for tripping Drew Callin in front of the Reading net because if he hadn’t, there might have been a riot on the ice.
Reading killed that penalty, but Linesman Drain and Foley weren’t done with their shenanigans. With the Royals offside with an extra attacker and Jeremy Michel not leaving the zone on the delayed call, the linesmen blew the play dead with Worcester in possession of the puck. With Michel deliberately not leaving the zone to cause a whistle, that’s an intentional offside. It’s Rule 83.6; “An intentional off-side (sic) is one which is made for the purpose of securing a stoppage of play regardless of the reason…”. The faceoff should have been in the Royals’ zone, which is what Worcester argued for. Larry and Curly, errr, Linesman Drain and Foley, placed it in the neutral zone.
Because nothing comes easy for Worcester, Adam Samuelsson took an automatic delay of game minor for no good reason with 32.2 seconds left in regulation. Reading was unable to get a shot after that point as the Railers managed to keep their slim playoff hopes alive with the 2-1 win.
After a rare Saturday night off, with the Royals reportedly heading to Fenway to catch the Red Sox game with the San Diego Padres, the two teams will square off Easter Sunday, with a 3pm puck drop.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Gabe Blanchard (14-day IR/Upper body), Dalton Duhart (14-day IR/unknown), Connor Federkow (14-day IR/Lower body), Riley Ginnell (14-day IR/Lower body), Anthony Hora (14-day IR/Lower body), Xavier Jean-Louis, Tristan Lennox, Ross Mitton, Ryan Miotto (14-day IR/unknown), and Max Ruoho (3-day IR). Thomas Gale was the backup goaltender.
Even with the two wins so far this week, the Railers’ playoff picture looks bleak. If Worcester wins out, they will have 79 points. Because regulation wins are the first tie-breaker, the Railers need to win pretty much every game in regulation to have any shot. Reading is already at 77 points, so to not have to worry about tiebreakers, any combination of Railers points missed and/or Royals points gained that adds up to three, and Worcester can’t catch them. Next is Adirondack, which has 76 points, so any combination of Railers points missed and/or Thunder points gained that adds up to four, Worcester won’t be able to catch them, and that would likely completely eliminate the Railers. But now there’s another problem. Trois-Rivières is between us and fourth place, and they need 11 points to reach 80, the number that eliminates the Railers. The problem for Worcester is that the Lions and Thunder play four times. The Railers need Trois-Rivières to win all four in regulation, but then win only one other game. These tragic numbers: Reading (3), Adirondack (4), and Trois-Rivières (11) are all based on Worcester owning the tiebreaker. If the other team holds the tiebreaker, the tragic number drops by one. And no team in the playoff hunt currently has fewer regulation wins than the Railers. This comes with my usual caveat, “don’t trust my math.” But I can do second-grade math, and any divisional opponent reaching 80 points eliminates them from being caught by Worcester.
Between this writer and former Telegram scribe Bill Ballou, there has been some significant boxscore diving Friday morning as we look to see if Thursday night’s five goals by defensemen are a first for Worcester pro hockey. Based on just my research, if it happened, it took place before the IceCats 2003-04 season. In fact, I could not locate a four-goal defender goal game since that season. Ballou was able to go through box scores from earlier seasons and ended with the same results as I did. So not only was it the first time defensemen scored five goals in a game, but it was also the first time they scored four.
By the way, a lot of these records involving defenders scoring require a little more legwork than you’d think because both Terry Virtue and Jame Pollock spent significant time playing forward, so one needs to know who was in the lineup for a particular game to determine what position the two were playing. The same is true for WorSharks defenders-turned-forwards Brad Staubitz and Michael Pelech, although neither scored enough to really worry about. The Railers have had two players play multiple games at both forward and defense: Riley Piercey and Bo Brauer. Again, neither hit the scoresheet enough to be anything but a footnote.
For no reason this writer can fathom, it appears the Reading Royals don’t issue postgame press releases after every game. Posting one seems like something I would think to be an automatic thing to do. Press releases are a free way to attempt to get people to look at your product, and for a team that appears to be budget-conscious enough not to send their radio play-by-play person to Worcester, “free” should be right up their alley. The last time they posted a recap was February 27th. They have two recaps for the Reading Jr. Royals, and the previous ECHL Reading recap is from February 6th. They can run their business any way they see fit, but this seems like a big hole in their public relations operations.
The three stars of the game were
1. WOR – #35 Parker Gahagen
2. WOR – #44 Anthony Callin
3. WOR – #37 Matt DeMelis
The 210Sports Player of the Game is Case McCarthy.
Even Strength Lines
Repaci / A.Callin / D.Callin
Piercey / Carson / Hatten
Donhauser / DeMelis / Kaplan
Veremyev / Dorrington / McDonnell
McDonald / McCarthy
Suda / Pulkkinen
Samuelsson / Corcoran
Press Releases
RAILERS: Railers hold on in 2-1 win over Reading
ROYALS: None before posting time
Our affiliates last night
Philadelphia 4, NY Islanders 1
Bridgeport 4, Hartford 2
In the ECHL’s North Division last night
Trois-Rivières 2, Maine 1
Norfolk 6, Adirondack 5
Allen 6, Greensboro 0
BOX SCORE
Reading 0 0 1 – 1
Worcester 2 0 0 – 2
1st Period-1, Worcester, Callin 18 (McCarthy, DeMelis), 6:51 (PP). 2, Worcester, DeMelis 17 (Donhauser, Kaplan), 11:52. Penalties-Johannes Rea (high-sticking), 5:38; Hatten Wor (hooking), 7:16; Meehan Rea (roughing), 18:17; Callin Wor (roughing), 18:17.
2nd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-McDonnell Wor (holding), 4:59; Hadfield Rea (slashing), 15:22; Dorrington Wor (slashing), 15:22.
3rd Period-3, Reading, McLaughlin 2 (Meehan, Kurth), 11:37 (PP). Penalties-Johannes Rea (elbowing), 8:59; Suda Wor (interference), 10:19; Mongo Rea (tripping), 15:26; Samuelsson Wor (delay of game), 19:27.
Shots on Goal-Reading 13-12-12-37. Worcester 13-4-5-22.
Power Play Opportunities-Reading 1 / 4; Worcester 1 / 3.
Goalies-Reading, Petruzzelli 17-14-5-1 (22 shots-20 saves). Worcester, Gahagen 17-10-4-1 (37 shots-36 saves).
A-3,523
Referees-Michael Zyla (34), -.
Linesmen-Stephen Drain (52), Conor Foley (86).
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