WORCESTER DROPS SCHOOL DAY GAME 4-1 TO STINGRAYS

By Bill Ballou

WORCESTER – The Railers were beaten by the South Carolina Stingrays, 4-1, in front of a school day crowd of 7,303.

It was the seventh-largest crowd in team history.

The final was 4-1 but the last two South Carolina goals were into an empty net. The key goal was scored on a 2-on-0 break at 10:11 of the third period as the Stingrays’ Erik Middendorf converted a pass by Josh Wilkins to beat Michael Bullion from the bottom of the left circle.

“We turned the puck over just inside their blue line,” coach Bob Deraney said, “and then we have two guys on a different play.”

Instead of making the simple play and dumping the puck into the South Carolina zone, it turned into a lateral pass. That was the unexpected play and before the Railers could recover, the Stingrays were on their way towards Bullion and their second goal.

The big, always noisy, school day crowd may have been discouraged by the outcome but fans saw a terrific match, one with playoff speed and intensity plus splendid goaltending.

“It was a great game,” Deraney said. “I thought that both teams played very well. There are no moral victories but we belonged. In fact, I thought we were the better team today. We took it to ‘em. We had our chances. Again, you have to score on the power play, and that’s hurting us right now.”

The Railers have often not belonged when they play the Stingrays, who are tradtionally one of the ECHL’s best teams. Wednesday’s defeat dropped Worcester’s all-time record against South Carolina to 2-8-1. The Railers are 1-7-0 against the Stingrays at the DCU Center and have scored only 11 goals in those eight games.

Wednesday’s goal was scored by Jack Randl at 3:44 of the second period. That made it a 1-1 game as he responded to a goal by South Carolina’s Jon McDonald in the first period. Jamie Engelbert and Grant Cruikshank had the empty-netters.

Garin Bjorklund was superb in the Stingrays net. He stopped 36 of 37 shots. That improved his numbers to 2-1-0 for the season with a 1.64 goals-against average and a .947 saves percentage.

Bullion was excellent once again for the Railers, who have had strong goaltending throughout the season.

“We’re very fortunate,” Deraney said, “to have guys out there who give us a chance to win every night.”

The loss made Worcester’s record 5-5-0 through 10 games. The Railers were 3-5-2 after 10 last season. Remarkably, they are 103-103-19 since the start of the 2021-22 season.

MAKING TRACKS – The game included four fighting majors, two for Worcester. Colin Jacobs had one, Kolby Johnson the other. Johnson knocked down Reilly Webb with a punch to the helmet at 3:56 of the third period. … Worcester is averaging 4,822 through five home games. … Anthony Callin returned to action after missing six games with injury. J.D. Dudek is still out hurt. Ryan Verrier, Lincoln Hatten, Brendon Rons and Cole Crowder were all not in the lineup. … Verrier, by the way, has played exactly 72 games in a Worcester uniform. That’s the equivalent of a full ECHL season and he is 5-13-18 and plus-4 in those game. … Rookie forward Justin Gill was recalled to Bridgeport. … Anthony Repaci is merely the third Railer to get a Player of the Week award. All have come in the calendar year 2024. Blade Jenkins and Ashton Calder were both recognized late last season. … The Stingrays are back for another game here Friday night. … Original IceCats coach Jimmy Roberts has been named to the St. Louis Blues Hall of Fame. The timing is good … The ECHL Hall of Fame’s latest class includes former IceCat Jamey Hicks. Other Worcester connections in that Hall of Fame are ex-IceCats Chris Valicevic, Allan Sirois and the late Jim Bermingham, all of whom played for Roberts.

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