The Worcester Railers began a string of “must-win in regulation” games Thursday night in the first of three this holiday weekend against the Reading Royals, and got the first hat trick by a pure defenseman in Worcester pro hockey when Case McCarthy scored his first three goals of the season in Worcester’s 5-3 win over the Royals.
If anyone had said pregame that a defenseman would score a hat trick, they would have had a few rolling their eyes at them. If someone thought the Railers would get five goals from blueliners in the game, there would be a bunch of people laughing at them. If any person predicted that the Worcester power play, after going oh-fer 50, would score three times, everyone would have thought they were certifiably insane.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Railers hockey.
In all the new things happening in the game, Anthony Repaci set another Worcester pro hockey record just 1:11 into the contest with his 965th shot on goal, passing Terry Virtue on another career list. Repaci has two more potential records in front of him, as he trails Virtue in career assists by 17 and Jay McClement in shorthanded goals by two. It’s often joked that for Repaci to catch Virtue in penalty minutes it would likely take a prison sentence, but that’s not far from the truth.
It was McCarthy who opened the scoring at 6:36 on a nice snipe from up high, with Declan McDonnell and Max Dorrington providing the assists.
Sitting high above our usual perch, Railers Booster Club President Rich Lundin noted on that shot that McCarthy, who was not rushed, took care to keep that shot low so that it could be deflected. With Dorrington setting a nice screen in front, a deflection wasn’t needed.
Soon after an Anthony Callin goal was correctly waived off by referee Sam Heidemann when Repaci outmuscled a Reading defender into Royals netminder Carson Bjarnason, McCarthy scored again, this time on the power play, breaking Worcester’s string of extra-man ineptness at 50. Matt DeMelis and Gleb Veremyev got points on the play on the goal at 12:36.
Worcester opened the next frame on the power play and even had a bit of a five-on-three advantage. It was Jesse Pulkkinen who scored the Railers’ second power play goal of the game with an NHL-quality wrist shot that beat Bjarnason clean. Michael Suda and Repaci got the assists, but the goal was really all Pulkkinen and another Dorrington screen.
Reading made it interesting with the next two goals of the frame, with Jeremy Michel scoring at 10:36 and Carson Golder following at 18:05. At the end of the period, Referee Heidemann called Adam Samuelsson for a completely phantom tripping call, and fans spent the intermission mumbling “here we go again”.
But what happened next was one of the oddest goals in the Railers franchise history, which gave McCarthy the first-ever hat trick by a pure defenseman–Terry Virtue had a hat trick but was playing forward at the time–and for the first time in franchise history, four goals in a game were scored by a defenseman. Callin and Cole Donhauser had the assists on the shorthanded goal.
Ben Meehan answered with a power play goal at 8:27 after Worcester got caught in the Roy Sommer line change, Suda added a third power play goal, and a franchise record fifth goal by a defenseman, for the eventual 5-3 final.
The victory was the 250th franchise win in Railers’ history.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Gabe Blanchard (14-day IR/Upper body), Vincent Corcoran, 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), Jordan Kaplan, Tristan Lennox, Ryan Miotto (14-day IR/unknown), and Max Ruoho (3-day IR). Thomas Gale was the backup goaltender.
As expected, the AHL Board of Governors has rubber-stamped the relocation of the Bridgeport Islanders to Hamilton, Ontario. The team will begin play at the newly renovated TD Coliseum in Hamilton for the 2026-27 season, and will move to the AHL’s North Division. While no one from the New York Islanders will go on the record to confirm this, whispers from the Islanders’ organization say they received such a favorable lease agreement that it more than makes up for the increased cost of recalling and assigning players. One has to wonder how the organization will deal with the increased time it will take to get players from Hamilton to Elmont, New York, as a Google search shows there don’t appear to be any non-stop flights between the two cities, although you can get from Toronto to the NYC airports for a travel time of about four hours. A car ride between Hamilton and Elmont is almost eight hours. A ride from Bridgeport to Elmont is usually under 90 minutes.
Despite all the talk–and wishes from Worcester fans–there is no news on a potential new affiliation for the Railers. Bill Ballou threw his two cents in recently, so we’ll mention that. There was a tiny bit of news he mentioned, with the DCU Center’s Fallon Pavilion being renamed the Novalarm Pavilion in a ceremony pregame on Friday. So now fans can ignore the new name as they did the old, and just continue to refer to the area as “the doors”.
Those in attendance Thursday night did not hear the usual dulcet tones of public address announcer Adam Webster, who had the night off to celebrate Passover. On the microphone instead was Kyle Treanor, who had done the NCAA regionals last weekend, and who this writer believes does PA announcing for some Holy Cross sports.
Fans will remember that on the first Monkey Wrenches game this season on February 28th, referee Alexandre Gagne took a puck up high after being struck by a Michael Suda keep-in bid. Gagne was helped off the ice and was sent to Saint Vincent Hospital, where he was diagnosed with a concussion and held for observation for several hours. Gagne returned home, with his girlfriend driving, and was out of action until last night, when he took the ice to officiate the Florida at Jacksonville matchup with fellow referee Bobby Esposito. It’s good to see Gagne recovered and back in action.
The three stars of the game were
1. WOR – #21 Case McCarthy
2. WOR – #18 Michael Suda
3. WOR – #24 Jesse Pulkkinen
The 210Sports Player of the Game is Max Dorrington.
Even Strength Lines
Repaci / A.Callin / D.Callin
Piercey / Carson / Hatten
Donhauser / DeMelis / Mitton
Veremyev / Dorrington / McDonnell
McDonald / McCarthy
Suda / Pulkkinen
Samuelsson / Jean-Louis
Press Releases
RAILERS: Railers defense powers Worcester to 5-3 win over Reading
ROYALS: None at posting time
Our affiliates last night
No games scheduled
In the ECHL’s North Division last night
Allen 8, Greensboro 5
BOX SCORE
Reading 0 2 1 – 3
Worcester 2 1 2 – 5
1st Period-1, Worcester, McCarthy 1 (McDonnell, Dorrington), 6:36. 2, Worcester, McCarthy 2 (DeMelis, Veremyev), 12:36 (PP). Penalties-Jean-Louis Wor (high-sticking), 2:45; Gendron Rea (holding), 12:27; Saint Rea (high-sticking – double), 18:02.
2nd Period-3, Worcester, Pulkkinen 9 (Suda, Repaci), 2:44 (PP). 4, Reading, Michel 12 (Saigeon, Kulakov), 10:36. 5, Reading, Golder 17 (Mongo, Kurth), 18:05. Penalties-Kulakov Rea (high-sticking), 1:05; Meehan Rea (interference), 4:27; Hatten Wor (roughing, unsportsmanlike conduct), 12:00; Samuelsson Wor (tripping), 19:48.
3rd Period-6, Worcester, McCarthy 3 (Callin, Donhauser), 1:38 (SH). 7, Reading, Meehan 11 8:27 (PP). 8, Worcester, Suda 5 (Dorrington, McDonnell), 14:12 (PP). Penalties-Robidoux Rea (tripping), 5:29; served by Piercey Wor (bench – too many men), 7:21; Frasca Rea (slashing), 12:15.
Shots on Goal-Reading 12-9-5-26. Worcester 12-12-10-34.
Power Play Opportunities-Reading 1 / 5; Worcester 3 / 7.
Goalies-Reading, Bjarnason 0-1-0-0 (34 shots-29 saves). Worcester, Gahagen 16-10-4-1 (26 shots-23 saves).
A-1,921
Referees-Sam Heidemann (22), -.
Linesmen-Michael Tarquinio (45), Antoine Bujold-Roux (72).
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