By Bill Ballou

WORCESTER – Worcester’s 5-3 loss to Adirondack Sunday afternoon made the Railers 0-2-0 for the season.

Easier said than done, perhaps, but one thing the Railers can do to improve the goals against is avoid turnovers. Sunday, they fell behind by 2-0 and battled back to forge a 3-3 tie heading into the third period. Worcester first deadlocked the score at 2-2, then surrendered the go-ahead goal to allow the Thunder to retake the lead.

It was 3-3 going into the third. Another turnover turned into the game-winning goal for Adirondack.

Railers players have to want to play in the defensive zone, coach Nick Tuzzolino said, and so far that has not been the case. “Guys need to play it the way we want them to play it,” he added. “They can’t go on their own page. They have to stop and start. They have to be physical.

“D-Zone’s not a pretty job, but when you don’t do it you give up a lot of goals….it’s a full six-man thing, whether it’s goaltending, defensemen or forwards. It’s a commitment to play defense, to kill penalties, and the last two nights we have had no commitment to play defense.”

Worcester got its goals from Matt Stief, Cole Donhauser and Anthony Callin. Henrik Tikkanen stopped 24 shots in net. The Thunder scorers were Brannon McManus with two, Dylan Wendt, Justin Taylor and Brian Carrabes into the empty net.

The Railers got off to a muddy start. As a result, Adirondack had a 2-0 lead before the game was 10 minutes old.

Wendt put a wrist shot home from about 30 feet at 2:51, then Taylor had a gimme from just outside the crease at 11:21 with the Thunder on a power play. It stayed 2-0 heading into the second period and Worcester made it a tie game before that period was half over.

Lincoln Hatten gave the offense some energy when he worked a breakaway at 3:30, although he did not convert. The Railers then went on a power play at 3:41 and Stief took only six seconds to make it 2-1. He was set up when Drew Callin made a clean faceoff win.

Stief scored from the right point as Anthony Callin also got an assist on the play. Donhauser tied it at 8:04 off a faceoff win by Ryan Miotto.

A dreadful giveaway allowed McManus to score unassisted and make it 3-2 at 14:41 but Worcester answered that goal just eight seconds later when Anthony Callin scored from in close after being set up by Matt DeMelis.

It took Callin two games to score his first goal this season. It took him 16 to score his first goal last year.

McManus scored unassisted on another turnover three minutes into the third period and the Railers could not answer that one.

“We had a game plan going into the third and didn’t touch it for nine minutes,” Tuzzolino said.

Stief was the eighth different player to score the season’s first goal in the Railers’ eight seasons, the second defenseman. Nick Albano is the other.

In order, first goals have been scored by Wade Murphy, Barry Almeida, Jordan Samuels-Thomas, Albano, Brent Beaudoin, Quin Ryan and Stief.

MAKING TRACKS – Michael Ferrandino made his Railers debut. … Tikkanen became the only Railers goalie to play in four different seasons. The Worcester pro record is five seasons. Curtis Sanford and Cody Rudkowsky did that for the IceCats. … The Railers have played more games against Adirondack, 90, than any other ECHL opponent.That includes six playoff games. In the regular season, Worcester leads the series 46-32-6. … Railers play two games at Norfolk next weekend. They are back home on the 31st for a two-game series versus Reading.

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