Railers Struggle to Score in 5-0 Defeat to Trois-Rivières

Worcester Railers HC vs. Trois-Rivières Lions

April 15th, 2022

Colisée Vidéotron

Meeting 9 of 10 vs. Trois-Rivières this season

Railers are 5-4-0-0 vs. the Lions this season

Railers Struggle to Score in 5-0 Defeat to Trois-Rivières

Railers playoff fate will be determined tomorrow afternoon

Trois-Rivières, QC– The Worcester Railers HC (32-32-4-2, 70pts) were dispatched by the Trois-Rivières Lions (33-29-5-1, 72pts) on Friday night by the final score of 5-0 in front of a crowd of 4,102 at Colisée Vidéotron. The Railers are back in Trois-Rivières, QC at the Colisée Vidéotron on Saturday, April 16th to take on the Trois-Rivières Lions at 3 p.m. Worcester will need to come away with one more point than Maine does tomorrow as the Mariners will face Newfoundland at 6 p.m. for the Railers to advance to the playoffs.

The Trois-Rivières Lions got on the board late in the first period, scoring what would be the eventual game winner with ten seconds left in the frame. Four insurance goals scored in the second made it 5-0 Trois-Rivières. The Lions would go on to win the game and clinch the three seed in the Kelly Cup Playoffs, coming away with the 5-0 victory over the Railers on Friday night.

Worcester and Trois-Rivières exchanged good looks on offense throughout the first period, but it would be Trois-Rivières late in the frame to break the ice first. With just 10 seconds remaining in the opening period, Alexis D’Aoust (19th) would find the back of the net as he swatted a loose puck in front to make it 1-0 Lions. Shots in the period favored Worcester 10-8.

It didn’t take very long for Trois-Rivières to extend their lead and start to pull away from the Railers in the second. First it would be Max Kaufman (3rd) who received a cross-ice feed from Tim Vanstone and one-timed the puck past Colten Ellis in net for the Railers to extend the Trois-Rivières lead to 2-0 just 1:12 into the period. Four minutes later, Cedric Montminy (19th) batted home a rebound off of a point blast from Justin Ducharme just eight seconds into Trois-Rivières’ first power play of the night, making it 3-0 Trois-Rivières with 14:46 to go in the second. After Montminy’s goal, Blake Christensen stepped up for the Railers and dropped the gloves with Jonathan Joannette to try to inject some life into Worcester, with important points on the line. Unfortunately for the Railers, Trois-Rivières didn’t slow up, as the Lions went on to add two more in the frame. It would be Anthony Nellis (20th) ten minutes later who would continue to pile on for the Lions. Nellis came gliding down the right side of the attacking end for Worcester and placed a perfect shot past the right shoulder of Colten Ellis and made it a 4-0 Trois-Rivières lead. The final goal of the night came from Brenden Locke (3rd), who capitalized on the individual effort from Joannette to split the Worcester defense and open up the left side of the ice for him, as he tapped the puck past Ellis to give the game its final score of 5-0. Shots in the period favored Trois-Rivières 15-14, as Worcester still led in shots 24-23 through two periods.

The third period proved empty for the Railers, who despite pouring another ten shots on Lions goaltender Phillippe Desrosiers, were unable to score in the final frame as the game came to a 5-0 close on Friday night. Trois-Rivières outshot Worcester 14-10 in the third, and 37-34 on the game.

Notes:

Three Stars: 3rd Star: Anthony Nellis (1-1-2, +2, 4 shots), 2nd Star: Phillippe Desrosiers (34 saves, 0GA, 1.000 SV%), 1st Star: Justin Ducharme (0-3-3, +2, 3 shots)… Final shots were 37-34 in favor of Trois-Rivières… Phillippe Desrosiers made 34 saves on 34 shots for Trois-Rivières … Colten Ellis (15-13-1) made 32 saves on 37 shots for Worcester, while Jérémie Forbes-Brisebois served as the backup… Worcester went 0-for-1 on the power play while Trois-Rivières went 1-for-1… Bobby Butler (DNP), Chris Ordoobadi (DNP), Ethan Price (DNP), Grant Jozefek (IR), and Austin Osmanski (INJ) did not play for Worcester… Blake Christensen led the Railers in shots with 6… The Railers are now 5-4-0-0 all-time vs. the Lions and 3-1-0-0 at the Colisée Vidéotron against Trois-Rivières.