GOALTENDING DUEL ENDS IN 3-2 SHOOTOUT LOSS FOR RAILERS

By Bill Ballou

WORCESTER – Railers coach Bob Deraney has said this season, more than once, that there are no moral victories.

There is progress, though, and his team made some of that in a 3-2 shootout loss to Trois-Rivieres Sunday afternoon. It was a point and Worcester teams have learned how important one November point can be at the end of their last three seasons.

Better than that, it was a competitive game after a series of matches in which the Railers seemed overmatched.

The winning shootout score belonged to Anthony Beauregard and prompted the rare video review. Worcester goaltender John Muse had the puck in his glove, but the glove was over the goal line, and possibly pushed there.

A quick second look was all it took for the Lions to get the two points.

Muse and Trois-Rivieres goalie Hunter Jones were both sensational. They faced 40 shots each and stopped 38. Many of those 80 shots on goal were legitimate scoring chances, not 55-footers.

The Railers are 2-1-1 in Muse’s four starts. He has a 2.63 goals-against average and .915 saves percentage.

Anthony Repaci scored at 9:15 of the second period to make it a 1-1 game. Jack Randl made it 2-1 at 11:53. Beauregard got the game’s first goal at 15:53 of the first period and Logan Nijhoff tied it at 0:55 of the third period.

For 67 minutes, the afternoon was a hockey fan’s dream.

The goaltending was great, the play intense and physical and the final outcome in doubt until the video review was over. It even included something never seen before at the DCU Center, at least in anyone’s memory.

Trois-Rivieres coach Ron Choules was thrown out of the game at 13:05 of the second period.

While that had never happened at the DCU Center, it did happen at an IceCats game in Springfield when the late Marc Potvin, coaching the Falcons, began disrobing in protest of what he considered to be bad officiating.

Both teams had big penalty-killing moments that helped them get into overtime. The Railers quashed a major that started at 17:27 of the first period after Kolby Johnson was called for fighting. The Lions killed off 100 seconds of a two-man disadvantage that commenced at 9:03 of the third period.

With a much better performance in the memory bank, the Railers will spend Thanksgiving in Kansas as they start a four-game road swing against the Thunder.

There’s a catch, though. Worcester plays Wednesday, Friday and Saturday against the Wichita Thunder then takes on the Adirondack Thunder on Dec. 4. The Railers are back home versus Maine on Dec. 6 to begin a month that is heavy on home games, ten in total.

The games in Wichita mark the first time Worcester has played that team. That particular Thunder will be the Railers’ 29th different opponent all-time.

MAKING TRACKS – Neither Colin Jacobs nor J.D. Dudek were in the lineup. … Attendance was 2,790. … Griffin Loughran took a puck in the face and left the game at the same time Choules was ejected. … Muse’s 40th save was late in overtime as he took a hard shot by Beauregard off the mask. … Randl had an assist to go with his goal. … This was Worcester’s fifth overtime game of the season, third versus Trois-Rivieres. The Railers won each of their first four OT appearances. Sunday’s shootout defeat made them 42-43 in games that go past regulation including 14-14 in shootouts.

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