John Muse Shuts Out The Royals 5-0

Worcester Railers vs. Reading Royals

December 29th, 2023

Santander Arena

Meeting 2 of 9 vs. Reading this season

Railers are 1-1-0-0 vs. the Royals this season

John Muse Shuts Out The Royals 5-0

Repaci one goal shy of tying franchise goal record.

Reading, PA – The Worcester Railers HC (11-11-2-2, 26pts) shutout the Reading Royals (10-13-1-1, 22pts), on Friday night by the final score of 5-0 in front of 3,320 fans at Santander Arena. The Railers will face the Reading Royals again tomorrow as part of their second three-in-three of the season at Santander Arena on Saturday, December 30th at 7:00 EST.

Muse was perfect through three periods of play as he posted his first ECHL shutout since New Year’s Eve back in 2018. The Railers supported their new goaltender with a barrage of goals. Ryan Verrier (1-0-1) opened up the scoring with his first ECHL goal, Riley Piercey (1-0-1) scored his second goal in his professional career, Zach White (1-1-2) popped in a goal for his 100th career point in his ECHL career, Connor Welsh (1-1-2) scored on a one-timer on the power play, and Anthony Repaci (1-1-2) would score his 59th Railers goal, putting him one shy of tying the franchise goal-scoring leader in Barry Almeida.

The Railers continue their recent goal-scoring habits early in this game. Zach White found an open Ashton Calder (0-1-1) on the right-side boards in a hurry to enter the zone. Calder then stopped on a dime at the right faceoff dot and slung a shot onto the net. The rebound bounced off the right pad of Reading Goaltender Nolan Maier to the crashing Railers Defenseman Ryan Verrier. Verrier snapped the rebound home from the high slot to beat Maier on his blocker side. Riley Piercey slammed home a one-timer past Maier from the slot and made it a 2-0 Railers lead. The Royals ended up leading the period in shots on goal 11-8.

The Royals tried to take advantage of their power play opportunity early in the second period. However, after a shot went wide right from the left side dots, Joey Cipollone (0-1-1) exited the box to coral the rimed puck on a 2-on-1 situation with Zach White speeding in from center ice. White received the puck in the high slot and made a move on his forehand down low to score on the outstretched Maier and achieve the 100th point in his ECHL career. A couple of minutes later, the Railers made their second power play opportunity of the game look easy. Blade Jenkins (0-3-3) sent a pass from the left side boards to Connor Welsh just inside the right circle. Connor Welsh and Anthony Repaci would quickly one-touch the puck to each other before Welsh blasted a one-timer past the glove side of Maier to make it a 4-0 game. The Captain, Anthony Repaci, decided to get in on the goal-scoring frenzy. Blade Jenkins carried the puck in from the right side and made a beautiful toe drag move to get past the aggressively positioned Maier, and feed a back door pass to Repaci who was on the doorstep of the goal. This goal ended up being Repaci’s 59th all-time goal for the Worcester Railers and puts him one goal shy of tying Barry Almeida’s record as the franchise goal-scoring leader. The Railers outshot the Royals this period 11-6.

Where the third period lacked in scoring it made up for in physicality. The period itself had a total of 36 minutes in penalties with 8 minors, 2 majors, and a 10-minute game misconduct for abuse of officials. Reading led the period in shots on goal 11-8.

Notes:

Third Star: Anthony Repaci (1-1-2), Second Star: Zach White (1-1-2), First Star: John Muse (0.00 GAA, 1.000%)… Railers Goaltender John Muse started his first ECHL game since February 5th, 2019 and faced 28 shots with 0 goals allowed. He picked up his first ECHL shutout since December 31st, 2018… Royals Goaltender Nolan Maier made 22 saves and allowed 5 goals (.773 SV%)… Anthony Repaci is one goal shy of tying Barry Almeida in all-time franchise goals for the Railers… Zach White gets to 100 career points in the ECHL with a goal in the second period… Blade Jenkins picks up 3 assists on the night with 2 of them being primary

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