READING, PA – The Worcester Railers HC (11-19-2-0, 24 points) began the new calendar year with an impressive 4-1 win over the Reading Royals (28-11-4-0, 40 points) in front of 2,290 fans at Santander Arena on Friday evening.
Ben Thomson (1 goal, 1 assist) scored just 32 seconds into his first ECHL shift while Ivan Chukarov (1 goal) scored his first goal of the season and Ryan MacKinnon (1 goal, 1 assist) scored a short-handed five on three goal. Evan Buitenhuis made 30 saves in net for his seventh win of the season. Trevor Gooch (5th goal of season) scored the lone goal for Reading while Felix Sandstrom made 15 saves in net.
It took just 32 seconds for Thomson (1st goal) to find the back of the net in his first ECHL shift when he tracked a puck nicely and slammed it past Felix Sandstrom to give Worcester a 1-0 lead. After a feed from the right circle from Yanick Turcotte, Chukarov (1st goal) drove the puck home from the top of the left circle with a hard wrist shot over the blocker of Sandstrom at 3:12 to increase the Railers lead to 2-0. Buitenhuis stopped all seven shots he faced while Worcester led 2-0 through 20 minutes of play and outshot Reading 9-7.
The second frame saw no scoring as Buitenhuis made six saves and Sandstrom made five saves. Each team had one power-play but could not convert as Worcester had a 2-0 lead through 40 minutes of play.
Turcotte received five minutes for charging and a ten-minute misconduct at 4:23 of the third period and then Dante Salituro went to the box for high sticking at 5:32 giving the Royals a five on three power-play. Despite being down two men, it was the Railers who would answer when Nic Pierog flipped a puck to MacKinnon (2nd goal) who raced in and fired one bar down over the glove of Sandstrom increasing the Railers lead to 3-0. Reading finally broke through when Gooch (5th goal) was able to sneak home a rebound at 10:56. Drew Callin (6th goal) tacked on the insurance goal with an empty net tally at 19:46 to hand Worcester a 4-1 win.
The Railers and the Royals will meet on Saturday in Reading at 7 p.m.
Notes: Three Stars: 3rd star: Trevor Gooch (1 goal); 2nd star: Ryan MacKinnon (1 goal, 1 assist); 1st star: Evan Buitenhuis (30 saves, Win) … Final shots were 31-19 in favor of Reading… Felix Sandstrom (6-8-0) made 15 saves on 18 shots Reading… Evan Buitenhuis (7-10-1) made 30 saves on 31 shots for Worcester while Ian Milosz served as the backup… Worcester went 0-for-1 on the power play while Reading went 0-for-4… Kyle McKenzie (injury), Jordan Samuels-Thomas (injury), JD Dudek (Injured Reserve), Tanner Pond (Injured Reserve), Bo Brauer, and Cody Payne did not dress for Worcester… David Quenneville, Linus Soderstrom, and Jakub Skarek are all currently on recall with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers… Yanick Turcotte extended his point streak to three games with an assist and added 15 penalty minutes in which he is now second in the league with 103… Drew Callin has now scored in three straight games… Ryan MacKinnon has now scored a five on three power-play and short-handed goal… 19 shots on net for Worcester was a season low… Connor Doherty is the only Railers player to play in the first 32 games this season… Railers now lead the ECHL with eight short-handed goals… Mike Cornell (1 assist) played in his first game for Worcester since December 4th and added an assist… Kyle Thomas played in his first game for Worcester since December 21st… Jack Stander played in his 100th pro game… The Railers are now 7-10-0-0 under Coach Cunniff… Eric Cairns, Director of Player Development for the New York Islanders, joined Coach Cunniff behind the bench… It was just the third loss on home ice for Reading this season in regulation… Worcester is now 13-9-1-0 against the Royals all time and 5-7-0-0 at the Santander Arena.
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