Railers Drop First Trip To Reading 5-2

Worcester Railers vs. Reading Royals

December 15th, 2023

Santander Arena

Meeting 1 of 9 vs. Reading this season

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

Railers Drop First Trip To Reading 5-2

Reece Newkirk tallies assist in first game for Worcester this season

Reading, PA – The Worcester Railers HC (8-10-2-2, 20pts) fell short to the Reading Royals (7-12-1-1, 14pts), on Friday night by the final score of 5-2 in front of 2797 fans at Santander Arena. The Railers head to Glen Falls, NY to take on the Adirondack Thunder at Cool Insuring Arena on Saturday, December 16th at 7:00pm EST.

Anthony Repaci (1-0-1) opened up the scoring in the first period after getting a rebound breakaway chance from Reece Newkirk (0-1-1), playing in his first game for Worcester after being assigned from the Bridgeport Islanders. Royals Forward Shane Sellar (3-0-3) would score a natural hat trick in the second period with all three goals being assisted by five different players (Tag Bertuzzi, Matt Brown, Brendan Hoffman, Will Zmolek, and Austin Master). Tag Bertuzzi and Blade Jenkins traded goals in the third to wrap up scoring for the game at 5-2.

Worcester notched the only tally of the first period. It came off a Reece Newkirk rush, which left the puck exposed for Anthony Repaci (5th) to slam home. Worcester was penalized twice in the period, but did not concede a power play goal all night long. Shots in the first favored Reading 13-9.

Shane Sellar (6th, 7th, 8th) stole the show for Reading in the second, notching a natural hat trick with three unanswered tallies. Tristan Lennox would leave the game late in the second period due to injury and was relieved by Joel Eisenhower. Eisenhower faced just one shot in the second and steered it aside. Worcester outshot Reading 10-9 in the second.

The Royals came out of the third period quickly with a goal scored by Tag Bertuzzi (6th) over the glove hand of Eisenhower. Blade Jenkins (6th) picked up the puck atop the left circle and ripped it blocker side to make it a 4-2 game with an assist from Ryan Verrier. The Royals would seal off the game with an empty net goal by Brayden Guy (2nd).

Notes:

Third Star: Brayden Guy (1-0-1), Second Star: Tag Bertuzzi (1-1-2), First Star: Shane Sellar (3-0-3)… Tristan Lennox (5-6-1) faced 21 shots on net and saved 18 of them (.857 SV%), and Joel Eisenhower made 8 saves on 10 shots faced (.800 SV%) for Worcester… Parker Gahagen made 26 saves on 28 shots faced (.929 SV%) for Reading… Anthony Repaci has goals in three straight games… Trevor Cosgrove led the team in shots on goal (7) and PIMs (6).

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