Worcester Wraps Up Road Trip with 5-3 Loss to Florida

Worcester Railers HC vs. Florida Everblades 

February 24th, 2024 

Hertz Arena 

Meeting 3 of 3 vs. Florida this season 

Railers are 0-3-0-0 vs. the Everblades this season 

Worcester Wraps Up Road Trip with 5-3 Loss to Florida 

Zsombor Garat scores first professional North American goal. 

Estero, FL – The Worcester Railers HC (22-22-4-2, 50pts) lost to the Florida Everblades (27-15-7-2, 63pts) on Saturday night by the final score of 5-3 in front of a crowd of 7,650 at Hertz Arena. The Railers have wrapped up their six-game southern road trip and return to the DCU Center against the Trois-Rivieres Lions on Saturday, March 2nd at 7:05pm. 

The Everblades opened the scoring with goals from Sean Josling (1-2-3) and Joe Pendenza (1-1-2) just 2:43 apart to grab a 2-0 lead. Worcester responded 27 seconds later as Jack Quinlivan (1-0-1) wrapped a backhander behind the net past Johnson to make it 2-1 going into the second. Worcester kept the pressure on the Everblades in the second as they added on two more from Zsombor Garat (1-1-2) and Andrei Bakanov (1-0-1) to take their first lead of the night going into the third at 3-2. Florida took the lead in the third thanks to goals from Will Reilly (1-0-1), Mark Senden (1-0-1) and an empty netter from Brett Davis (1-0-1) to take the game 5-3.  

Florida controlled the pace of play across the first fourteen minutes in the first, culminating in the game’s first goal. Sean Josling (14th) received a backdoor pass from Oliver Chau who received the puck from Pendenza below the goal line to bury it past Cole Ceci in net for Worcester to put the Everblades ahead 1-0. With Florida on the power play 2:43 later in the period, Joe Pendenza turned on a one-timer and sent it past Ceci as Florida led 2-0 late in the period. Jack Quinlivan (4th) responded for Worcester just 27 seconds later. He took the puck off the stick of Zsombor Garat and wrapped it with his backhand inside the near post from beneath the net to get Worcester to within one heading into the second.  

Worcester picked up the only goals in the second. Zsombor Garat (1st) hammered a heavy one-timer on the power-play from Trevor Cosgrove for his first professional North American goal. His marker tied the game at the 7:29 mark of the second. Later in the period with 4:51 left in the second, Andrei Bakanov (7th) ripped a wrister past the blocker of Cam Johnson following a perfect drop pass from Anthony Callin to give Worcester the 3-2 lead entering the third.  

The Everblades would be the only team to score in the third period. First it was Will Reilly (6th) on a wrister from the point that beat Ceci blocker side to tie the game 3-3 just 7:49 into the frame. From there, Mark Senden (9th) found the puck barreling down the left wing and buried it through the legs of Ceci to make it 4-3 Florida. Brett Davis (3rd) sealed the deal for Florida with an empty netter with just 1:31 remaining in the game to give Florida the win and the final score of 5-3.  

Notes: 

Three Stars: 3rd Star: Mark Senden (1-0-1, GWG, 3 shots) 2nd Star: Sean Josling (1-2-3, +1, 3 shots), 1st Star: Joe Pendenza (1-1-2, +1, 8 shots)… Final shots 31-22 in favor of Florida..  Cam Johnson (17-10-4-0) made 19 saves on 22 shots for Florida… Cole Ceci (1-3-0-0) made 26 saves on 30 shots for Worcester, while John Muse served as the backup… Worcester went 1-for-5 on the power play while Florida went 2-for-7… Ashton Calder (DNP), Ryan Dickinson (DNP), Ryan Verrier (IR), Tristan Lennox (IR), and John Copeland (IR) did not dress for Worcester… Trevor Cosgrove and Anthony Callin each led the Railers in shots with 3.

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