Mariners Defeat Railers For Second Straight Day 5-3 Sunday
Mariners Defeat Railers For Second Straight Day 5-3 Sunday
Myles McGurty and Anthony Repaci notch multi-point performances
By Bill Ballou
The Maine Mariners capped off back to back wins against Worcester defeating the Railers by a final score of 5-3 on Sunday afternoon in front of a crowd of 4,028 at the DCU Center.
The game included what is becoming an obligatory hat trick in Railers-Mariners games. This one came from Maine forward Keltie Jeri-Leon and was the fifth by a Mariners player against Worcester this season.
Jordan Lavallee-Smotherman has one against Maine.
Marc-Olivier Duquette and Patrick Shea had the other Maine goals. Brent Beaudoin, Anthony Repaci and Cole Coskey scored for Worcester.
The Mariners came out more strongly than the Railers but it took them a while to take the lead. Duquette scored the go-ahead goal at 13:29 of the first period as Cameron Askew chipped the puck back to him just inside the blue. Duquette closed to about 50 feet and blasted a low shot past Ellis.
That was all the scoring in the first 20 minutes and Beaudoin tied it early in the second period with his 12th of the year. Repaci forced a turnover in the neutral zone and Myles McGurty crashed the Maine end with Beaudoin on his left.
McGurty’s pass was on the spot and Beaudoin beat goalie Stefanos Lekkas from the bottom of the left circle.
Repaci put Worcester ahead exactly 11 minutes later with his 18th goal of the year, his first shorthanded. He broke int alone from the neutral zone and Repaci, who had had several breakaways recently that didn’t wind up in goals, sent a shot that broke through Lekkas’ pads and over the goal line to give the Railers a 2-1 lead at 14:27.
Alas, while the goal was shorthanded the lead was short-lived. Shea scored for Maine before the power play was over on a weird play that saw the puck ping-ponging around the top of the crease before winding up in the net.
It was 2-2 at 15:11.
Jeri-Leon scored all three of his goals in the third period but it was not a natural hat trick. His last one was into an empty net. Cunniff pulled Colten Ellis with the score 4-2 and Coskey made it 4-3 at 19:07 but Leon responded at 19:41.
“We can bounce back,” Cunniff said, “and I’m not saying that to just rally the troops. I know we can do this. I’ve seen how well we played when we were away and we still have the same group, the same goaltending. We just have to play better.”
MAKING TRACKS_Bobby Butler, Connor McCarthy, Will Cullen and Grant Jozefek are on injured reserve while Mitchell Balmas and Reece Newkirk are injured and did not dress. … The Mariners and Railers play again Wednesday night in Portland. Worcester’s next home game is Friday night versus Adirondack. … Ellis has been voted the game’s No. 2 star nine times but has never gotten the nod as No. 1. … The Railers’ streak of not posting a shutout was extended to 92 games going back to Dec. 4, 2019. … Eight of Beaudoin’s 12 goals have either tied the score or put Worcester ahead. … Attendance was 4,028. The Railers averaged 4,829 for the weekend. … McGurty had two assists to record his first multi-point game as a Railer.
