Worcester Comeback Falls Short in 3-1 Loss to Lions

Worcester Railers HC vs. Trois-Rivières Lions 

March 9th, 2024 

Colisée Videotron 

Meeting 11 of 14 vs. Trois-Rivières this season 

Railers are 6-5-0-0 vs. the Lions this season 

Worcester Comeback Falls Short in 3-1 Loss to Lions 

Cosgrove notches his seventh goal of the season 

Trois-Rivières, QC – The Worcester Railers HC (25-25-4-2, 56pts) lost to the Trois-Rivières Lions (23-26-3-3, 52pts) on Saturday afternoon by the final score of 3-1 in front of a crowd of 2,224 at the Colisée Videotron. The Railers head back home to play the Reading Royals for their second school-day game of the year on Wednesday, March 13th at 10:05am. 

Trois-Rivieres notched the game’s first two goals from Jakov Novak (1-0-1) and Justin Ducharme (1-0-1) to go up 2-0 entering the second. Nicolas Guay (1-0-1) extended the Lions lead to 3-0 with an early goal in the second. Trevor Cosgrove (1-0-1) scored the final goal of the game in the second on the power play as the Railers would go on to lose 3-1 to Trois-Rivières to wrap up the weekend.  

Jakov Novak (21st) continued his hot play against the Railers with his 13th point against the team this year. Novak found the puck loose in front on a chaotic play in front of Ceci and proceeded to pat it past him to Put the Lions ahead 1-0. While short-handed, Cory Thomas airmailed a puck from his own corner into the neutral zone. Justin Ducharme (14th) skated past the Railers defense and scooped up the puck en route to scoring blocker side on a breakaway past Ceci to make it 2-0 Trois-Rivières going into the second. 

Trois-Rivières picked up in the second where they left off in the first with a goal just 3:57 into the frame. Nicolas Guay (6th) entered the Railers zone on a three-on-one rush with Tyler Hylland and John Parker-Jones. As the puck bounced around the attacking zone, Guay placed a perfect shot bar-down past Ceci for his second goal in two games to make it 3-0 Lions. Worcester went to the power play for the second time off a trip from Nicolas Lariviere. Trevor Cosgrove (7th) hammered a one-timer off a pass from Keeghan Howdeshell and made it 3-1 Railers on the man-advantage. The Lions continued to pressure in the second, but Cole Ceci was strong the rest of the period as Worcester was outshot 13-7 in the second.  

Worcester woke up in the third, outshooting the Lions 18-2 in the frame. Worcester tested Strauss Mann heavily in the period, but the Greenwich, CT native was strong in net as he turned all 18 shots aside. He secured the third star of the game for the Lions, along with the win for Trois-Rivieres. 

Notes: 

Three Stars: 3rd Star: Strauss Mann (30 saves, 1GA, .968 SV%) 2nd Star: Nicolas Guay (1-0-1, +1, 3 shots), 1st Star: Justin Ducharme (1-0-1, GWG, +1, 3 shots)… Final shots were 31-22 in favor of Worcester...  Strauss Mann (2-0-0-1) made 30 saves on 31 shots for Trois-Rivières… Cole Ceci (1-4-0) made 19 saves on 22 shots for Worcester, while John Muse served as the backup… Worcester went 1-for-4 on the power play while Trois-Rivières went 0-for-2… Riley Piercey (DNP), Todd Goehring (DNP), Anthony Repaci (IR), Ryan Verrier (IR), Tristan Lennox (IR), and John Copeland (IR) did not dress for Worcester… Anthony Callin led the Railers in shots with 7. 

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