By Bill Ballou

WORCESTER – There is no need to employ artificial intelligence to understand that what the Railers need to do to make a quick climb back into the North Division playoff picture is score more goals than the opposition.

Not necessarily a lot more, just more.

They did that here Monday morning — score one more than the Adirondack Thunder — to beat them by 3-2 and snap a losing streak of four games in which they scored just five goals.

Worcester’s three on Monday came from Lincoln Hatten, Jordan Kaplan and Stevie Moses in that order. Kaplan also picked up an assist. Gabriele Carriere got the win in net with a solid day’s work. He made 21 saves in his DCU Center debut.

The triumph snapped a losing streak, but extended a winning one.

The School Day crowd was 8,080. That made the Railers 9-0-0 all-time in DCU Center games that drew at least 8,000 fans.

Worcester’s three goals could be classified as blue-collar, mysterious, and beautiful. The list starts with Hatten’s.

It happened at 18:51 of the second period and made it a 1-1 game. Ryan Wheeler put an unspectacular shot on Thunder goaltender Jeremy Brodeur from about 40 feet out. Brodeur stopped it but Hatten was just outside the right post to bang home the rebound.

It was still 1-1 as the third period neared the halfway mark. Kaplan’s mysterious goal gave Worcester the lead at 9:46. He had the puck to the right of the net, just about on the goal line, and whacked a backhand pass that disappeared into a mass of bodies in front of Brodeur.

The next thing either Kaplan or Brodeur knew the Railers had a 2-1 lead.

“We talked about not wasting shots,” Kaplan said. “If there’s a place you’re gonna waste a bucket it’s at the net. So I just threw it out there and it must have hit off about six things before it went in.”

Moses gave the home team a two-goal lead at 14:14 and this one was one of those “goal scorer goals” that show up on nightly highlight reels. He collected the puck in the neutral zone, zipped down the right wing, made a move to get around a defender and create some room, then beat Brodeur high from about 25 feet.

“I think that’s the kind of stuff he expects himself to be doing,” coach Nick Tuzzolino said of the veteran from Leominster. “There’s a lot to this game that isn’t just scoring and I think that’s been an adjustment in the last few games here.

“We’ve seen him kind of trending that way in the last couple and now he’s getting the result.”

Worcester needed that goal as Adirondack pulled Brodeur in the closing minutes and Tristan Ashbrook scored at 19:02 to make it 3-2. Worcester defenseman Connor Moore was in the penalty box for slashing at the time so the Thunder with a two-man advantage.

Adirondack’s other goal was scored by Cole Tymkin 17:57 of the second period to give his team a 1-0 lead. Hatten responded less than a minute later.

MAKING TRACKS – Wheeler was plus-3 playing against the team he was with for the three previous seasons. … The Wheeling Nailers are in town Saturday and Sunday to conclude the homestand. … Railers not in uniform included Anthony Repaci, Connor Fedorkow, Adam Samuelsson, Matt Hobbs and Gabe Blanchard. … Congratulations to goaltender Jeff Jakaitis, who has been named to the ECHL Hall of Fame. His connection to hockey in the city is that he played three games for the Sharks in 2010-11. … Tyson Fawcett assisted on Kaplan’s goal for his first point as a Railer. … The first minute of the third period featured a brief but intense bout between Cole Donhauser and Adirondack’s Jace Isley. Isley got the first punch in and Donhauser went down. The Railers’ forward was back up immediately and retaliated with Isley going down. … Worcester did not give up a shorthanded goal, snapping a streak of three games in a row. It is a franchise record. … The Railers’ all-time record vs. Brodeur improved to 11-10-1.

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