The Worcester Railers hosted the Wheeling Nailers Saturday night at the DCU Center in the first of a pair of weekend contests between the former ECHL North Division rivals, and once again the Railers’ inability to consistently put the puck in the net cost them two points in a 3-1 loss.
Wearing lavender “Railers Fight Cancer” hockey jerseys, Worcester looked pretty good in the opening twenty minutes, and if they had a few players who could put the puck in the net, they would have most assuredly ended that first period with the lead. But they don’t, and they didn’t.
The scoreless tie continued through the middle frame where, once again, perhaps having some scoring depth would have resulted in the red light going off behind Nailers netminder Kasimir Kaskisuo. But there is no scoring depth, and there was no score.
With time winding down in the second, Parker Gahagen, who was the busier netminder in the middle frame, made a nice save to keep it 0-0.
Wheeling took a 1-0 lead 1:16 into the third when Denis Smirnov put a rebound past Gahagen.
A few moments later, Craig Armstrong took exception to a late hit and threw several punches at Worcester’s Declan McDonnell. Referee Nolan Knezevic, working the game solo, gave Armstrong a major for fighting and an aggressor game misconduct. It was originally announced as a match penalty for fighting, but the scoresheet lists it as just a major.
Forty seconds later, Caige Sterzer knotted the score 1-1 with his first professional goal. Ryan Wheeler and Nikita Susuyev earned the assists.
Despite having over four more minutes of major power play, the Railers could manage just three more shots.
The Nailers would retake the lead with a power play goal by Dustin Geregach at 10:27. The box score currently doesn’t list Anthony Repaci’s penalty, perhaps because it was a terrible call by Referee Knezevic. Justin Taylor made it 3-1 Wheeling at 13:03, and that was more than enough against the anemic Railers offense.
The good: A lot of money was raised for Why Me & Sherry’s House
The bad: The offense.
The obvious: The clock is ticking, one way or the other.
GAME NOTES
Scratches for the Railers were Gabe Blanchard (3-day IR/Unknown), Tyson Fawcett (day to day/Upper body), Connor Federkow, Riley Ginnell, William Lavallière, and Michael Suda (7-day IR/Upper body). Gabriel Carriere was the backup goaltender. With Anthony Repaci returning to the lineup, it was, unfortunately, Fawcett’s turn to stand with head coach Nick Tuzzolino and assistant Chris Rumble behind the bench. No official word on what his injury is, but the vibe seemed to be an “if this were the playoffs” kind of thing.
Before the main event, the Boston Bruins Alumni took on the “Why Me All-Stars”, and for the first half it looked to be a fairly even game with the boys in black and gold leading just 4-2. Former Worcester Sharks Public Relations Coordinator Jeremy Lemoine had one of the two early goals for the “Why Me All-Stars”. The second half was a completely different story as the Bruins Alumni decided to play a bit harder in the final 25 minutes, and rolled to a 13-4 win.
In this week’s transactions, on Monday the Railers announced they’d suspended forward Matthew Hobbs, and soon after Evansville of the SPHL posted that Hobbs was rejoining their team. Worcester will continue to hold his ECHL rights, unless they decide to release him or trade his rights to another club. While the Blues announced the move on Monday, on Wednesday the Railers officially added forward Nikita Susuyev to the roster.
Captain Anthony Repaci made some history with his return to the ice, becoming just the fourth Worcester pro to play in six different seasons with a city team, joining Terry Virtue, John McCarthy, and Frazer McLaren on the list. Repaci is now at 292 career regular-season Worcester games, third on the all-time list. He’s just 11 behind Marc Brown for second all-time (303), but he can’t reach Virtue’s 455 games without playing more than another full season for the Railers in addition to the current one. In his six seasons in an IceCats jersey, Virtue averaged more regular-season games, 75.8, than Repaci can possibly play in a season for the Railers.
As it’s the first time this season Worcester and Wheeling face off, we’ll take our usual look at some roster and area connections. Nailers forward Matt Crasa played four seasons for UMass-Lowell, while Mike Posma played four years with Boston College. Former Railers’ fan favorite Kolby Johnson played parts of two seasons with Worcester, amassing 119 penalty minutes in 38 games, and Nailers’ assistant coach Jason Payne played ten games for the IceCats in 2000-01, garnering 46 penalty minutes in 11 games. There are no Railers connections to Wheeling that we could find.
Two teams that don’t get mentioned much here, Idaho and Rapid City, got an unexpected weekend off after their games at Idaho Central Arena in Boise were postponed due to ice conditions. This writer was going to send a quick email to former Railers broadcaster and 2021–22 ECHL Broadcaster of the Year Cam McGuire to see what happened, but luckily I remembered that McGuire no longer works for the Steelheads, and instead called the Ontario Reign (AHL) his home. After a little digging online, it seems that while the Steelheads haven’t made a formal announcement about it, a part of the Idaho Central Arena ice plant broke Wednesday before the game, and a replacement part wouldn’t arrive until after this weekend. The ECHL has not rescheduled the three missing games, and barring something odd happening, none of this will impact the Railers at all.
We didn’t have a post for Monday’s 3-2 Worcester School Day win over Adirondack because our pesky regular job got in the way, but for those still interested, you can check out the ECHL’s official game report or take a gander at what the Railers or Thunder have to say about the game. Worcester did release a highlight package, so we’ll add it for today.
The three stars of the game were
1. WHL – #73 Kasimir Kaskisuo
2. WHL – #26 Dustin Geregach
3. WOR – #55 Caige Sterzer
The 210Sports Player of the Game was Parker Gahagen.
Even Strength Lines
Moses / DeMelis / Repaci
Susuyev / Kaplan / Stange
Sterzer / Donhauser / McDonnell
Piercey / Carson / Hatten
Corcoran / Kehrer
Wheeler / Samuelsson
McDonald / Moore
Press Releases
RAILERS: Worcester falls in Saturday night tilt 3-1 to Nailers
NAILERS: Third period surge lifts Nailers in Worcester
Our affiliates last night
Nashville 3, St Louis 1
NY Rangers 4, Seattle 3
Hershey 6, Springfield 1
Hartford 3, Syracuse 2 OT
In the ECHL’s North Division last night
Trenton 4, Norfolk 2
Maine 2, Greensboro 0
Adirondack 5, Trois-Rivières 4 OT
BOX SCORE
Wheeling 0 0 3 – 3
Worcester 0 0 1 – 1
1st Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Smith Whl (tripping), 6:06; Johnson Whl (roughing), 11:24; Piercey Wor (roughing), 11:24; Smirnov Whl (hooking), 12:29.
2nd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Gursoy Whl (tripping), 1:48; Carson Wor (high-sticking), 5:00; Samuelsson Wor (tripping), 6:50; Sterzer Wor (roughing), 17:14.
3rd Period-1, Wheeling, Smirnov 1 (Thompson, Hartman), 1:16. 2, Worcester, Sterzer 1 (Wheeler, Susuyev), 2:22 (PP). 3, Wheeling, Geregach 1 (Parker, Drazner), 10:27 (PP). 4, Wheeling, Taylor 2 (Crasa, Haight), 13:03. Penalties-Armstrong Whl (fighting – major, game misconduct – aggressor), 1:32; Smirnov Whl (fighting – major), 14:30; Hatten Wor (fighting – major), 14:30; Taylor Whl (high-sticking), 15:57; served by Carson Wor (bench – too many men), 17:29.
Shots on Goal-Wheeling 4-7-9-20. Worcester 11-5-12-28.
Power Play Opportunities-Wheeling 1 / 4; Worcester 1 / 5.
Goalies-Wheeling, Kaskisuo 1-0-0-1 (28 shots-27 saves). Worcester, Gahagen 1-4-0-0 (20 shots-17 saves).
A-6,337
Referees-Nolan Knezevic (51), -.
Linesmen-Joshua Rosenbaum (40), Jack McQuesten (53).
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