WORCESTER DROPS HOMESTAND FINALE 8-5 TO MAINE

By Bill Ballou

WORCESTER – This was not the way the Railers wanted to go into the Christmas break, nor was it the way they wanted the second-longest homestand in team history to end.

They were beaten by the Maine Mariners, 8-5, Sunday afternoon. There is no official statistic for this kind of thing, but more may have happened in this game than any other the Railers have ever played.

There were 13 goals and 25 assists, 79 shots on goal and 66 minutes worth of penalties. That included 20 minutes of fighting majors, 18 minutes of roughing calls, 20 misconduct minutes, two slashes, one high sticking and one plain old tripping call.

Worcester played aggressively and the officials blew their whistles aggressively. So, who was too aggressive — the Railers or the referees — coach Nick Tuzzolino was asked.

“I thought it was both,” he responded. “I thought they mismanaged the penalties on Hatten in the second period.”

Indeed, during a major scrum at 3:19 of that period, Worcester forward Lincoln Hatten was given a triple minor (is that a first?) for roughing. Along with some other calls, the Railers wound up giving up three power play goals in a span of exactly two minutes.

Worcester was two men short for two of those goals, although at one point Tuzzolino send a fourth man out hoping that with all the humanity in the penalty boxes, the officials would not notice.

Nice try. They were not fooled.

With the last Maine goal being into an empty net, it was essentially a three-goal game.

“How many did we lose by?” Tuzzolino mused. “Three goals, and there’s your three goals.”

At one point Worcester trailed by 5-2. Twice the Railers came back from a three-goal deficit to make it a one-goal game but could not tie it. Their best chance was after Jordan Kaplan scored 51 seconds into the third period to cut Maine’s lead to 5-4, but the Mariners scored three of the game’s last four goals.

Worcester’s point producers included the resurgent Anothy Callin, who was 2-1-3; Anthony Repaci with a pair of assists; Riley Piercey with a pair of assists; Matias Rajaniemi with a goal, his first point of the season in his 24th game; and Matthew Kopperud, Ryan Dickinson, Hatten, and Mason Klee with an assist apiece.

Brad Arvanitis was the winning goalie. Michael Bullion took the loss.

On the negative side, “I don’t think our D-corps played very well,” Tuzzolino said.

On the plus said, “At no point in time did we think we did not have a chance to win that hockey game,” he added.

Also, the Railers have scored 10 goals in two games for the first time this season.

They finished the eight-game homestand with a 2-4-2 record, earning six of a possible 16 points. Worcester has a three-in-three weekend after the break, again playing divisional opponents. It plays at Reading Friday night, then is home versus the Royals and Adirondack.

MAKING TRACKS – At 2 hours, 51 minutes, it was the longest regulation game in team history. … Griffin Luce got 20 minutes worth of misconducts, including a game misconduct, midway through the third period. … Connor Welsh fought Carter Johnson in the second period and won via a knockdown. He delivered a crushing left. … The teams play again after next month’s All Star break. They have a two-game series in Portland on Jan. 24 and 25. … Tuzzolino went with the same lineup as Saturday night, a rarity this season. The only change was in net. … Attendance was 2,454. … Jordan Kaplan, Kopperud, Piercey, Klee, Welsh and Repaci are the only Railers to play in all 28 games this season. Welsh is the reigning ironman with 36 straight games played going back to 2023-24. … John Muse’s assist Saturday night was the 18th goalie assist in team history. The Railers are 15-1-2 in those games. … Saskatchewan native Kolby Johnson, comparing our recent cold snap with back home — “This is October weather.”

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