PORTLAND, Maine – The Railers beat the Maine Mariners in a shootout Friday night, 3-2, and the only bad thing about the game is that it had to end.
After a slow first period that saw the home team build a 1-0 lead, the Railers and Mariners combined to play 47 minutes and a shootout’s worth of riveting hockey. It was an every-shot-counts match. The fact that only two Maine shots actually counted was largely due to goaltender Tristan Lennox who almost certainly played the best game of his professional career.
Lennox made 37 saves and his timing was perfect. Many of them were great. One, with 10 seconds left in overtime, was impossible.
It was on Maine’s Jacob Perreault, who temporarily had an open net from the bottom of the left circle. Lennox somehow got the paddle of his stick across the opening in time to send the puck wide and send things into overtime, then a shootout.
Once there he stopped two of three shots. In contrast, Worcester beat the great Luke Cavallin two of of three times to earn its first shootout point since last March 8. Matt DeMelis and Ryan Miotto had the Railers goals, Miotto getting what proved to be the winner.
The win was just the second of the season for Lennox against eight losses. In those losses, though, his teammates had scored a total of 10 goals.
“I can’t tell you how happy that man is right now,” coach Nick Tuzzolino said, “and there is nobody more deserving. He’s put in the work ten-fold. He needed that.
“He has been playing great for us lately, but we haven’t really been playing great in front of him. Tonight, he was not going to be denied.”
Anthony Callin scored both regulation Railers goals, both in third period. One was shorthanded, one on a power play. Worcester was behind, 1-0, going into the final 20 minutes. Callin made it 1-1 at 3:38 shorthanded and gave the Railers the lead at 6:34.
Maine coach Rick Kowalsky sent an extra attacker on at 17:18 of the third period. The Mariners tied it just nine seconds later on a deflection by Antonio Venuto.
The home team went ahead 1-0 at 4:58 of the first period on a goal by Andrew Nielsen, briefly a Railer one year ago, but that was it for Maine for a long time.
“We were still on the bus,” Tuzzolino said of the first 20 minutes.
It looked as though Miotto had tied the game at 18:03 but the officials waved it off as goalie interference after video review. The call was disappointing for the Railers since it came after a challenge by Kowalsky, they said, and coaches are not supposed to initiate challenges on that play.
The teams continue the weekend series with a game here Saturday night.
MAKING TRACKS – One of the keys to the victory was Worcester’s penalty killing. It was 5 for 5. That included an overtime kill and a two-man-down kill of 1:34 in the second period. … The Railers are 37-26-4 all-time in the first game of a 3 in 3. They are 89-18-10 when one of their players has a multi-goal game. … Worcester has won four straight games versus Maine, tied for the longest such streak in team history. … Cam Berg was, as expected, recalled to Bridgeport. … Ross Mitton was injured in the third period Wednesday night and missed his first game of the season. … DeMelis’ goal Wednesday night was the 20th of his career. His timing is usually good. Eleven of the 20 have been scored in the third period or overtime. … It was a two-referee game. One of the partners was Eliot Grauer, doing a Railers game for the first time ever. … With Mitton out, four Railers have played every game of the season so far. They are Anthony Repaci, Miotto, DeMelis and Lincoln Hatten. … The crowd was 4,442 and sounded like more.
By Bill Ballou
#RailersHC
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