By Bill Ballou

WORCESTER – Worcester suffered a disappointing loss on home ice Sunday afternoon, 4-3, to the Maine Mariners. The Railers earned three of a possible six points for the 3 in 3 weekend but Maine added two points to increase its divisional lead over Worcester as part of the process.

The home team was stymied in part by Mariners goaltender Brad Arvanitis, one of the ECHL’s best. He probably earned his team the two points by his play in the second period when Worcester outshot Maine, 17-3, but was outscored by 2-0. Overall, Arvanitis made 33 saves.

Tristan Lennox stopped 19 of 23 shots for the Railers.

Good thing for the Mariners that Arvanitis was good. They had to dress an emergency backup goaltender, Stan Basistyy, who has never played a professional game.

Max Dorrington, Lincoln Hatten and Jesse Pulkkinen had the Worcester goals. Maine’s goals were scored by Robert Cronin, Andrew Nielsen, Zach Jordan and Brooklyn Kalmikov.

The Railers have been a slow-starting team to date in 2025-26. Sunday was an exception. Worcester scored before the game was seven minutes old but could not score again until the game was a little less than 58 minutes old.

Dorrington put the Railers ahead 58 seconds after the opening faceoff. He scored from between the circles after Anthony Repaci’s wraparound try wound up on his teammate’s stick. Cronin followed for Maine at 4:33 with an easy tip-in from just outside the crease. Worcester retook the lead at 6:19 when Hatten slid home the rebound of Pulkkinen’s hard shot.

That was it for the scoring in that period but not for the action.

At 12:35, Worcester’s Blonde Bomber, MacAuley Carson, battled with Maine’s Jackson Stewart along the right boards in the Railers zone. The oficials let the boys go and it was a long, intense fight, one of the season’s best.

In the second period, though, the Railers coughed up the lead in disheartening fashion. Worcester had 17-3 advantage in shots on goal but was outscored by 2-0. The Mariners got goals from Nielsen at 9:51 on the power play and Jordan on a breakaway at 19:30.

Nielsen, a defenseman who has played parts on nine seasons in the American Hockey League, played in three games for Worcester early last season. He scored a goal in each of the three games over the weekend.

Jordan’s goal, a 15-footer along the ice, was the game’s key one. It gave the Mariners margin and momentum going into the final 20 minutes.

Kalmikov made it 4-2 at 12:16 of the third period. Pulkinnen cut the gap to one goal with a great 40-footer at 18:14. He finished the night 1-2-3 and plus-2.

Matt DeMelis had a pair of assists as part of the Railers attack.

MAKING TRACKS – Dorrington’s goal was the earliest of the season for Worcester. … The All-Star break starts Tuesday. The Railers do not play again until the weekend when they have three games in Norfolk. Worcester’s next home game is Jan. 30 versus Wheeling. It does not play Maine again until Feb. 28. … Anthony Callin is just the third player with 50 career goals in a Railers uniform. Anthony Repaci (104) and Barry Almeida (60) are the others. … There was an excellent pre-game rendition of the National Anthem by a school group from Northbridge.

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