TROIS-RIVIERES, QC – The Worcester Railers HC (3-5-0-1, 7 points) won the first meeting in franchise history against the Trois-Rivières Lions (3-6-0-0, 6 points) by the score of 6-2 on Wednesday evening in front of 2,843 fans at the Colisée Vidéotron.
Worcester got on the board first thanks to an early goal from Paul Thompson (1 goal,1 assist), and they would never look back. Nic Pierog (1 goal, 1 assist) scored as well in the first as Worcester went into the break up 2-0. Another pair of Railers goals from Drew Callin (1 goal) and Blake Christensen (1 goal, 1 assist) put Worcester up 4-0 in the second. A late goal from the Lions made it 4-1 going into the second intermission. Another two Worcester goals were put on the board as Felix Bibeau found the back of the net on the power play and on an empty net, giving the Railers a 6-1 lead. A late power play goal from Trois-Rivières wrapped up scoring as the game ended with a 6-2 final. Ken Appleby picked up his second victory of the year as he made 47 saves in the effort.
The Railers got off to a hot start as Thompson (2nd goal of season) took a pass from Grant Jozefek out in front and put it past Phillippe Desrosiers just 2:24 into the game, giving Worcester the early 1-0 lead. Exactly seven minutes later, Pierog (2nd goal) in his first game back with Worcester since October 27th found the back of the net from the exact same spot as Thompson and put Worcester up 2-0. Shots were 14-7 in favor of Trois-Rivières. Appleby stood tall as he made 14 saves for Worcester in the period.
Eight minutes into the second period, Worcester again scored on the doorstep as Callin (2nd goal) slapped a feed from the corner toward the net to extend the Railers lead to 3-0. With 5:24 to go in the period, Thompson was hooked while in on a breakaway and subsequently awarded a penalty shot. Thompson came in on the left side and tried to beat Desrosiers blocker side, but ended up missing wide left. Just three seconds later off of the ensuing faceoff, Christensen picked the puck out of the scrum at the dot and ripped a shot from the top of the left circle to open up the Worcester lead to 4-0. After allowing his fourth goal of the night, Lions starting goalie Desrosiers would be pulled from the game and replaced with Carmine-Anthony Pagliarulo. Desrosiers made 14 saves on 18 shots on the night. With just one second remaining in the period Olivier Archambault (4th goal) tipped a blast from the point past Appleby to break the shutout bid and get Trois-Rivières on the board to make it a 4-1 game. The Lions continued to outshoot Worcester 29-20 after 40 minutes of play.
Nine minutes into the third, the Railers would go on an extended powerplay as Lions captain Cédric Montminy received a game misconduct after he committed a charging penalty against Worcester defenseman Myles McGurty. Montminy would be thrown out of the game, and Worcester would spend the next five minutes with the man advantage. 1:35 seconds into the powerplay, Bibeau (2nd goal) would find the back of the net off of a feed from Karl Boudrias to make it a 5-1 game. An empty netter from Bibeau (3rd goal) would wrap up scoring for the Railers, while Justin Ducharme (3rd goal) for the Lions netted a power play goal 46 seconds later to give the game its final score of 6-2.
The Railers face off against the Trois-Rivières Lions again on Friday, November 19th at 7:05 p.m. at the DCU Center.
Three Stars: 3rd star: Jordan Lavallee-Smotherman (1 assist, +1 rating) 2nd star: Nic Pierog (1 goal, 1 assist, +1, 3 shots) 1st star: Ken Appleby (47 saves, 2 goals against, .959 save percentage)… Final shots were 49-29 in favor of Trois-Rivières… Phillippe Desrosiers (2-2-0) made 14 saves on 18 shots for Trois-Rivières, while Carmine-Anthony Pagliarulo (0-0-0) made 9 saves on 10 shots for Trois-Rivières… Ken Appleby (2-3-1) made 47 saves on 49 shots for Worcester while Marc-Antoine Gelinas served as the EBUG… Worcester went 1-for-5 on the power play while Trois-Rivières went 1-for-4… Liam Coughlin (DNP), John Furgele (DNP), Ross Olsson (DNP), Anthony Repaci (DNP), Brent Boudoin (IR) did not dress for Worcester… Colten Ellis and Nick Albano are each up with the Springfield Thunderbirds… Ken Appleby played in his 100th ECHL game… Six goals is the most Worcester has scored in a game all season long… Jordan Lavallee-Smotherman now has four points in his last four games for Worcester… Nic Pierog recorded his second multipoint game in his third game for Worcester… Five Railers recorded multipoint games, the highest number in any game so far this season… Drew Callin, Felix Bibeau, and Blake Christensen led the Railers with 4 shots each… Worcester has 63 games left on the regular season 33 of which are at the DCU Center… The Railers are now 1-0-0-0 all-time vs. the Lions and 1-0-0-0 at Trois-Rivières.
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