By Bill Ballou

WORCESTER – This is not new around these parts.

The city’s pro teams — IceCats, Sharks, Railers — have always seemed to run into some opponent, at some time, they just can’t find a way to beat. In this time and place for the Railers, those guys are the Trois-Rivieres Lions.

Sunday afternoon, they pasted the home team by a 5-2 score. It was a letdown for Worcester which played so well in a 4-2 triumph over Maine on Saturday night.

In Game 2 of this season the Railers were out-everythinged except for outshot. A particular issue was special teams play. The Lions scored four times on special teams. They had three power play goals, one into an empty net, and a shorthanded goal.

In the year 2026, Worcester has played Trois-Rivieres eight times and won just one of those games. It has been outscored, 27-16 in that time and is 0-3-1 at the DCU Center.

These are divisional games. Each has a four-point swing.

The Railers goals were scored by Cole Donhauser and MacAuley Carson. It there is a sliver of sunlight in Sunday’s total eclipse, it is Donhauser’s goal. He scored on a power play at 14:32 of the second period, a beautiful play set up nicely by linemates Jordan Kaplan and Lincoln Hatten.

It was not a game-winner, or even a game-tyer, but might mean something as the year progresses. It was Donhauser’s first goal since Jan. 2, a span of 47 games and at least 99 shots on goal, maybe one or two more.

It was, indeed, a beauty. If hockey awarded three assists on a goal Hatten would have had two of them. He got the play going with a pass to Kaplan, got the puck back, then slid it across the top of the crease to Donhauser blazing in from the left side.

Carson scored at 11:41 of the third period on a goal was reviewed for a possible high stick. The puck popped up out of some traffic in front of the Lions net and wound up going in off the back of Trois-Rivieres goaltender Francisco Lapenna. Hatten got an assist on that goal as well along with Cooper Moore.

Lapenna was very good for the visitors. He stopped 24 of 26 shots and kept his team ahead all night. Lapenna is a rookie and his career is off to a memorable start. In his first seven pro games including six last season Lapenna is 6-0-1 and has given up just 10 goals on 221 shots.

That is a .955 save percentage.

The Lions got two goals from two players. Anthony Beauregard was one of them, Mathieu Bizier the other. Eduard Charron also scored for the Lions and Isaac Dufour had a pair of assists.

Beauregard scored at 5:32 of the first period, a power play goal, to make it 1-0. Charron gave the visitors a 2-0 lead at 3:55 of the second. Those first 20 minutes may have lost the game for Worcester. The Railers played well and outshot the Lions, 11-4, but could not beat Lapenna.

Donhauser’s goal was the Railers first power play goal of the season.

MAKING TRACKS – The defeat snapped Worcester’s seven-game win streak going back to the end of last season. … Parker Gahagen took the loss in net and stopped 14 of 18 shots. … Great uniforms for the home team, featuring the big “W” on the front of tan jerseys. … Later this week the Railers head out on a three-game road trip starting Oct. 24. in Maine. They play there again on the 25th then are at Adirondack on Oct. 30.

#RailersHC