The Worcester Railers took on Maine at the Cross Insurance Arena Sunday afternoon for the second time in as many days, and played one good period but went back to the dumb hockey they’ve been playing the last three games and lost 3-1.
Apparently, the solution to not being able to score last season wasn’t to not bring back two of the three top goal scorers from that team and then replace them with players who also can’t score. Who would have thought that idea would work? Oh, yeah, general manager and head coach Nick Tuzzolino, who did just that. We already knew the middle of the lineup guys couldn’t score, because they were here last year not scoring.
Worcester’s power play, which was comically bad last season, has somehow gotten worse. Through four games this season, the Railers have been outscored 4-1 while they have the man advantage. Their one official power play goal wasn’t really one at all; it was a goal scored on an odd-man rush after a four-on-four expired and a player came out of the box.
And then there’s just the sheer volume of dumb, undisciplined hockey this team plays. It’s completely unchanged from last year, because again, it’s mostly the same players. They consistently do mind-bogglingly stupid things.
This team isn’t going to be any better when Anthony Repaci comes off the injured list, because he will essentially be all alone out there. For a guy that’s carried this team on his back for seasons, he deserves a better fate in what might be his last playing season.
The Railers came out of the gates on fire, and halfway through the opening period, Matt DeMelis made it 1-0 Worcester as the Railers took advantage of a turnover and DeMelis made the Maine defense look silly. Stevie Moses and Riley Piercey had the assists
The period also saw the first two Worcester fights of the season. The first was when Tyson Fawcett picked up an instigator minor against Wyllum Deveaux after Deveaux received a boarding minor for a hit on Cole Donhauser. It did not look like much of a board, and it wasn’t much of a fight. Jordan Kaplan showed he was a gamer after taking on the much larger Dylan MacKinnon a couple of minutes later.
Everything good the Railers did in the first all but disappeared in the middle period, and Maine was able to tie it on, what else, a shorthanded goal by Max Andreev at 11:41. Late in the period, Maine headed to the power play when Gabe Blanchard was called for two slashing minors on the same play. The Worcester penalty killers were essentially invisible when Josh Bloom scored during the first minor at 18:43.
In the third, Antonio Venuto made it 3-1 Maine, and with the Railers having absolutely no one on the roster that can score goals or set up players to score them, all that was left was to see which Worcester player would do something stupid. It didn’t take long for Lincoln Hatten to answer that call.
Worcester has one game over the next seven days. Changes need to be made before this team ends up too far out of the divisional playoff race to catch up. I always jokingly say never to trust my math, but this time the equation is pretty simple.
The good: Worcester looks to have two solid netminders after Gabriel Carriere’s performance Sunday.
The bad: Everything.
The obvious: Changes have to begin quickly and in big numbers, or this team will be out of it by Thanksgiving. Good luck selling tickets after that.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Riley Ginnell (7-day IR/unknown), William Lavallière, Cooper Moore (day to day/Lower body), Anthony Repaci (7-day IR/Upper body), and Adam Samuelsson. Parker Gahagen was the backup goaltender. Repaci was once again behind the bench with head coach Nick Tuzzolino and assistant coach Chris Rumble, standing with the forwards.
Something seems to be up with Adam Samuelsson, who, as he has been since training camp was over, is on the reserve list. If he’s injured, he should have been added to the 7-day Injured Reserve list to open a roster spot to bring in a forward who might be able to either score or perhaps be a set-up player. This is the perfect opportunity for general manager Nick Tuzzolino to perhaps manage his roster better.
In yesterday’s game post, we didn’t even mention that Connor Federkow got a boarding major in the third period, mostly because it didn’t play much of a role in the game and it was a terrible call to begin with. The ECHL seems to agree with that assessment because Federkow, other than having to pay a small fine for the automatic game misconduct, wasn’t disciplined at all by the league for the hit. To be honest, this writer thought Mason Primeau’s high stick to the face of Matt Hobbs was a much worse infraction, and even that wasn’t worthy of more than the minor he received.
And speaking of Saturday afternoon’s game, you can add an assist to former Railers defender Connor Doherty on Max Andreev’s first shorthanded goal. Or not. It’s not like opponents’ points are something we tend to keep track of here on 210Sports, and we mention it just for a touch of content on a Sunday afternoon.
The three stars of the game were
1. MNE – #47 Max Lundgren
2. MNE – #23 Max Andreev
3. MNE – #8 Antonio Venuto
The 210Sports Player of the Game was Matt DeMelis.
Even Strength Lines
Piercey / DeMelis / Moses
Hatten / Carson / McDonnell
Donhauser / Kaplan / Fawcett
Federkow / Abgrall / Hobbs
Suda / Corcoran
Wheeler / Kehrer
Blanchard / McDonald
Press Releases
RAILERS: Worcester drops weekend finale 3-1 to Mariners
MARINERS: Lundgren win pro debut as Mariners sweep Railers
Our affiliates last night
(Sunday)
No games scheduled
In the ECHL’s North Division last night
(Sunday)
Greensboro 3, Greenville 2 OT
Kalamazoo 4, Reading 1
Trois-Rivières 7, Norfolk 1
BOX SCORE
Worcester 1 0 0 – 1
Maine 0 2 1 – 3
1st Period-1, Worcester, DeMelis 2 (Moses, Piercey), 10:30. Penalties-Kehrer Wor (high-sticking), 7:55; Fawcett Wor (instigating, fighting – major), 13:30; Deveaux Mne (boarding, fighting – major), 13:30; Kaplan Wor (fighting – major), 15:46; MacKinnon Mne (fighting – major), 15:46; Hobbs Wor (interference), 18:27.
2nd Period-2, Maine, Andreev 3 11:41 (SH). 3, Maine, Bloom 1 (Andreev, Venuto), 18:43 (PP). Penalties-Carson Wor (slashing), 3:12; Venuto Mne (hooking), 4:22; Bloom Mne (interference), 9:57; Hemstrom Mne (tripping), 14:32; Blanchard Wor (slashing, slashing), 18:13; Hatten Wor (roughing), 18:13; Deveaux Mne (roughing), 18:13.
3rd Period-4, Maine, Venuto 1 (Cronin, Francis), 15:19. Penalties-Donhauser Wor (boarding), 11:24; Hatten Wor (high-sticking), 16:09.
Shots on Goal-Worcester 9-12-11-32. Maine 14-17-5-36.
Power Play Opportunities-Worcester 0 / 3; Maine 1 / 7.
Goalies-Worcester, Carriere 0-1-0-0 (36 shots-33 saves). Maine, Lundgren 1-0-0-0 (32 shots-31 saves).
A-3,671
Referees-Will Kelly (7), AJ Potvin (27).
Linesmen-Trevor Davis (81), Shane Kanaly (74).
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