WORCESTER THROWS WRENCH IN BLOOMINGTON'S WEEKEND

By Bill Ballou

WORCESTER – Officially, baseball is the only sport with doubleheaders, but it felt like the Railers-Wrenches played one Saturday night.

Worcester tied the first game, 4-4. It won the second one, 2-0. That added up to a 6-4 victory over the Bloomington Bison and two more points in the North Division playoff race.

The home team got big offensive performances from Griffin Loughran, Matthew Kopperud (again), Lincoln Hatten and Matt DeMelis. Loughran and Kopperud were 1-1-2. DeMelis scored two goals. Hatten had the first three-point game of his career going 1-2-3.

Worcester winger Ryan Mahshie did not record a point. He did, however, record a hit that changed the nature of the night. At 14:26 of the second period, Mahshie delivered a clean, hard body check that led to a fight. He knocked down Bloomington’s Josh Boyer with a couple of hard punches early and got the building energized.

“That hit by Mahshie was the turning point of the game,” coach Nick Tuzzolino said.

The first 27 1/2 minutes of the match were wild. There are next-goal-wins games, but this was like next-shot-wins. The teams traded eight goals in that span and Worcester chased Bison goalie Yaniv Perets after Kopperud made it 4-3 at 2:43 of the second period.

Bloomington tied it at 7:30 on a goal by Jake Murray, who had a great night at 1-3-4. Kasimir Kaskisuo replaced Perets, but Tuzzolino stuck with Hugo Ollas.

Ollas played shutout hockey the rest of the way. Kaskisuo played well, also. The Railers finally regained the lead on DeMelis’ goal at 7:24 of the third period then Anthony Callin hit an empty net at 18:21.

How did Worcester regroup and play shutdown hockey after the early barrage?

“I yelled loudly,” Tuzzolino said. 

“We talk about it all the time. Our biggest flaw as a team is goals against. If you look at the numbers, we have the worst goals-against stat in our division for the spot we’re in. If we fix that, we’re gonna win games, plain and simple.

“We have to understand that if we don’t sell the farm and play systematically, we’re gonna beat most teams.”

The victory allowed Worcester to be able to control its fate. If it wins the rest of its games, it makes the playoffs no matter what anybody else does. That is the math, anyway. The reality is different, particularly since the home team faces a tough schedule.

Worcester plays three at first place Trois-Rivieres next week, then three against third place Norfolk here from the 13th through the 15th. Both teams can score. Tuzzolino is hoping he won’t need a megaphone.

MONKEYPUCKS – The team maintained its Monkey Wrenches theme but Bloomington complained to the league that the cream-colored jerseys looked too much like its road whites. League officials agreed so Worcester went with blue jerseys for this game. … Connor Welsh has already set the Railers record for most points in a season by a defenseman with 44. He is third on the all-time city list behind the Sharks’ Danny Groulx, who was 14-52-66 in 2009-10 and won the AHL’s Eddie Shore Award as best defenseman. Nick Naumenko was 12-34-46 for the 1997-98 IceCats. … Ollas has appeared in seven straight games, six of them starts. The last Worcester goalie to play in six straight was Henrik Tikkanen, who made six straight starts in 2022-23. … Loughran’s goal was the third 4 on 4 goal of the season for Worcester. … Kolby Johnson finished his suspension and was in the lineup. That gave the Wrenches a full roster of 18 skaters. … Callin is 6-9-15 in his last 12 games. Kopperud is 7-5-12 in his last nine games going back to before his promotion to Bridgeport. … DeMelis had the first multi-goal game of his career. … Ryan Dickinson was plus-3 and is plus-10 in his last 21 games. … It was a great game for the crowd, which was a loud 5,720.

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