By Bill Ballou

WORCESTER – The Railers were beaten by the Reading Royals, 5-2 on Wednesday down at the DCU Center.

The Railers got goals from Cole Donhauser and Griffin Luce. Lou-Felix Denis, Ryan Leibold, Shane Sellar, Matt Brown and Matt Miller scored for Reading.

The Royals got strong goaltending from Vinnie Purpura. He is one of what seems to be many goalies who play well against Worcester. Purpura is 7-0-1 versus the Railers in his career and has won each of his last five starts against them.

The visitors owned the first period as they outscored Worcester, 2-0, and outshot the Railers by 15-6.

Denis put Reading ahead at just 3:13 on a deflection. He tipped Cam Cook’s 50-foot wrist home from a little bit outside the left post. Leibold scored his fourth goal of the season shortly thereafter. He popped in a rebound from above the crease.

By the 13-minute mark the Royals had a 12-3 advantage in shots on goal.

While Reading dominated most of the period the Railers had the best early chances. Riley Piercey could not connect from the top of the crease at the 40-second mark and Jordan Kaplan hit a post exactly a minute later.

Sellar gave Reading a 3-0 lead at 10:41 of the third period as he beat Bullion on a high 35-foot wrist shot. However, Donhauser closed the gap to two goals less than a minute later.

He scored his second of the season at 11:03, putting the puck past Purpura to finish a scramble.

To follow his goal, Brown had a partial breakaway at 12:23 that Bullion could not stop, and it was a 4-1 game. Reading scored shortanded early in the third period. Luce got the last goal of the night with a 58-foot wrist shot at 3:37 that looked at first like it went post-to-post and stayed out.

The video replay showed differently.

The Railers claimed forward William Provost off waivers from Trois-Rivieres. Provost did not get on the scoresheet Wednesday night. Forward Riley Ginnell is en route from Allen. He is the future consideration in the pre-season move that sent Artyom Kulakov to Texas.

Ginnell is expected in for the weekend games against Trois-Rivieres.

While he did not represent a roster move, J.D. Dudek returned from the injured list and played his first game since Oct. 25. His absence totaled 20 games.

MAKING TRACKS – The Trois-Rivieres Lions are in town for games on Friday and Saturday nights. Worcester and Trois-Rivieres have played five games already this season and the Railers have five points in those matches. … The list of Railers not in uniform included Christian Krygier, Zachary Nazzarett, Jack Randl, Griffin Loughran and Brenden Rons. … The Railers continue to kill penalties well. They were 4 for 4 and are 25 for 28 (.893) in the last eight games.

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