Railers Fall 5-3 in Back-and-Forth Game With Growlers

Worcester Railers HC at Newfoundland Growlers

November 14, 2021

Conception Bay South Arena

Meeting 3 of 9 vs. Newfoundland this season

Railers are 1-1-0-1 vs. the Growlers this season

Railers Fall 5-3 in Back-and-Forth Game With Growlers

Jordan Lavallee-Smotherman records first multigoal game for Worcester

Conception Bay South, NL– The Worcester Railers HC (2-5-0-1, 5pts) lost the final game in their first three-in-three weekend of the season against the Newfoundland Growlers (8-2-0-0, 16pts) Sunday afternoon by the score of 5-3 in front of 1,168 fans at the Conception Bay South Arena. The Railers face off against the Trois-Rivières Lions on Wednesday, November 17th at 7:00pm.

The Railers trailed 1-0 after the first period, but were able to tie things up early in the second thanks to Jordan Lavallee-Smotherman’s (2-0-2) first goal of the night. Newfoundland would get two more to take a 3-1 lead before Nolan Vesey (1-2-3) stole the puck and strode down ice to beat Growlers goalie Evan Cormier and make it 3-2 going into the third. Newfoundland once again extended their lead in the third, but Lavalle-Smotherman would notch his second of the game to keep it a one goal game. Newfoundland found the back of the empty net with 39 seconds remaining in the game, as the Railers fell 5-3. Appleby made 28 saves in the setback, while Cormier made 23 and picked up his fourth win of the year.

With 12:09 to go In the first, Matteo Pietroniro threw the puck in from the left side of the blue line and Nathan Noel (2nd) deflected it past Ken Appleby as the Growlers jumped out to a 1-0 lead. Newfoundland was all over Worcester throughout the first period, as the Railers would get outshot 13-6 by the end of the frame.

Early in the second, some clean transition passes from Nolan Vesey and Collin Adams would find Jordan Lavallee-Smotherman (2nd) in the slot as he ripped one past Evan Cormier and made it a 1-1 game. Newfoundland bounced back just 1:22 later after Marcus Power (2nd) lifted one past Appleby just out in front to put the growlers back in front 2-1. Newfoundland went on the powerplay with just 2:36 to go in the second, and it was Ryan Chyzowski (4th) who put away a rebound in front to extend the growlers lead to 3-1. Ross Olsson (1st FM) and James Melindy (1st FM) broke out in a fight with 1:14 to go in the second, as the Railers looked for a spark to get them back in the game. With 12 seconds remaining in the period, Nolan Vesey (3rd) broke down the ice and took advantage of a Growlers misplay to rip one past Cormier and get the Railers back to within one heading into the second intermission. Newfoundland held the edge in shots 26-16 after 40.

Newfoundland extended their lead to 4-2 6:49 into the third thanks to Isaac Johnson (4th) tapping in a pass from the corner past Appleby. 1:17 later, Railers captain Jordan Lavallee-Smotherman (3rd) put home his own rebound off of a feed from Collin Adams in the corner to cut the deficit to one. With the game still close, Worcester got the extra attacker on by pulling Ken Appleby with 1:50 to go in the game. The Growlers were able to capitalize as Nathan Noel (3rd) put away the empty netter with 39 seconds left to give the game its final score of 5-3.

Three Stars: 3rd star: Matteo Pietroniro (0-2-2, +2) 2nd star: Jordan Lavallee-Smotherman (2-0-2, +1, 5 shots) 1st star: Nathan Noel (2-1-3, +1, 4 shots)… Final shots were 33-26 in favor of Newfoundland… Evan Cormier (4-1-0) made 23 saves on 26 shots for Newfoundland… Ken Appleby (1-3-1) made 28 saves on 32 shots for Worcester while Matt Jenkins served as the EBUG… Worcester went 0-for-2 on the power play while Newfoundland went 1-for-5… Blake Christensen (DNP), Paul Thompson (DNP), Felix Bibeau (DNP), JD Dudek (DNP), Brett Beaudoin (IR) did not dress for Worcester… Colten Ellis, Nick Albano, and Nic Pierog are all up with the Springfield Thunderbirds… Jordan Lavallee-Smotherman scored two goals in his first multigoal game as a Railer… Collin Adams recorded his first professional points by assisting on each of Lavallee-Smotherman’s goals… Nolan Vesey recorded a season-high three points with a goal and two assists, and now has six points over seven games for Worcester… Jacob Hayhurst led the Railers with 6 shots… Worcester has 64 games left on the regular season 33 of which are at the DCU Center… The Railers are now 5-13-1-1 all-time vs. the Growlers and 2-7-1-1 at Newfoundland.