Worcester Railers HC vs. Reading Royals
January 7th, 2022
Santander Arena
Meeting 3 of 12 vs. Reading this season
Railers are 1-1-1-0 vs. the Royals this season
Royals Storm Back Late to Defeat Railers 3-2 in Overtime
Ellis makes 45 saves in return to Railers
Reading, PA – The Worcester Railers HC (9-13-1-1, 20pts) lost to the Reading Royals (11-7-4-1, 27pts) in the first game of a Friday-Saturday series by the final score of 3-2 in overtime in front of a crowd of 2,316 at Santander Arena on Friday evening. The Railers are back at Santander Arena against the Reading Royals on Saturday, January 8th at 7:00 p.m.
After a scoreless first period, the Railers fell behind 1-0 just two minutes into the second period. Captain Jordan Lavallee-Smotherman (2-0-2) then scored a pair of goals midway through the frame to put Worcester ahead going into the second intermission. With just 2:28 to go in the game, Reading scored to make it 2-2 to force overtime. It only took 0:16 of overtime for Reading to score the game winner and secure the extra point by the final score of 3-2. Shots favored Reading 47-23 on the contest.
Neither Worcester nor Reading were able to break through in the opening period, as the frame ended with a score of 0-0. Shots through the first period were 13-9 in favor of the Royals. The Railers had two power play chances in the period but couldn’t capitalize on either, while successfully killing off the one man-advantage for Reading.
The Royals would open up scoring just 1:55 into the second as Patrick Bajkov (8th) beat Colten Ellis blocker side on the rush to give Reading a 1-0 lead. Ten minutes later, Railers captain Jordan Lavallee-Smotherman (12th) took a feed on the doorstep from Jacob Hayhurst and tucked it past Ustimenko to tie the game at 1-1 with 11:26 to go in the second. 1:50 after his first tally, Lavallee-Smotherman (13th) stole a Royals clear attempt in the high slot, walked in and shot it on Ustimenko who made the initial save, then finished off his own rebound to give Worcester their first lead of the night, 2-1. The score stood at 2-1 heading into the third period. Reading had the advantage in shots in the period 23-11, and 36-20 for the game.
With just 2:28 to go in the third period, Reading was able to apply enough pressure to break through and tie the game. Garrett Cecere (1st) sent a shot right past the glove hand of Ellis to make it 2-2 and force overtime in Pennsylvania. Shots in the third were in favor of Reading 11-3.
Only 0:16 into overtime, Trevor Gooch (3rd) blazed down the ice, split the defense, and ripped one glove side on Ellis to give Reading the win by the final score of 3-2.
Notes:
Three Stars: 3rd Star: Patrick Bajkov (1-1-2, +2, 5 shots), 2nd Star: Colten Ellis (45 saves, 3GA, .937 SV%), 1st Star: Trevor Gooch (1-0-1, +2, 6 shots, GWG)… Final shots were 48-23 in favor of Reading… Kirill Ustimenko (1-4-2) made 21 saves on 23 shots for Reading… Colten Ellis (4-4-0) made 45 saves on 48 shots for Worcester, while Jimmy Poreda served as the backup… Worcester went 0-for-5 on the power play while Reading also went 0-for-5… Tommy Besinger (DNP), Chris Ordoobadi (DNP), Brennan Feasey (DNP), Matt Sredl (DNP), and Grant Jozefek (IR) did not dress for Worcester… Colten Ellis made an ECHL high 45 saves in net… Reece Newkirk has four assists in two games Worcester this year… Jordan Lavallee-Smotherman recorded his seventh multi-point game of the year and his fourth multi-goal game… Ross Olsson led all Railers skaters with five shots… Cole Coskey made his Worcester debut wearing number 24… Mike Cornell, Collin Adams, Paul Thompson, Felix Bibeau, and Ken Appleby are all on recall with the Bridgeport Islanders while Blake Christensen, and Drew Callin… Liam Coughlin signed a PTO with Springfield Thursday and Nick Albano signed a PTO with Charlotte (AHL) Friday.The Railers are now 17-16-2-0 all-time vs. the Royals and 7-10-1-0 at Santander Arena against Reading.