WORCESTER – November 1, 2025 is not even three months in the past, but after the Railers’ 4-1 victory over the Reading Royals here Wednesday night, it might as well be three years ago.
On that November date Worcester was drubbed by the Royals, 5-1, in one of their worst outings during a terrible start to the season. Wednesday night, the home team was as dominant as Reading was in the teams’ first encounter.
The Railers did just about everything right in this triumph.
It started with another excellent performance by goaltender Parker Gahagen. It included the pass of the year, not the goal of the year, by Drew Callin. Another factor was a two-goal night by Cam Berg, up from Bridgeport in his Railers debut.
The victory brought Worcester two pure points. The Railers moved closer to the North Division’s top four and did it against one of the teams above them, third-place Reading.
Anthony Repaci and Matt DeMelis had the other Worcester goals. Gahagen stopped 21 of 22 shots. He is 8-3-0 with a 2.13 goals-against average and .929 saves percentage for the Railers. His numbers compare with Worcester’s most recent veteran goalie, John Muse, even if his style does not.
Coach Nick Tuzzolino was asked if Gahagen reminds him of Muse all.
“Only because he wins,” Tuzzolino. “He has a very good calmness, a quiet. It’s not the ‘I’m falling off the edge of a cliff’ type of save that Johnny made a lot of. It’s more like ‘I’m right there and you’re not scoring and I don’t care if you take five shots.”
By far Gahagen’s most important stop of the night came at 8:40 of the second period with Worcester’s lead at 1-0. Reading’s Nolan Burke had a clean breakaway with time and room. Gahagen simply stood his ground and made the save look easy.
“That was absolutely massive,” Tuzzolino said.
Berg may be a short-timer here before heading south to Bridgeport but made a memorable debut. He is merely the third Railer to score two goals in his first game with Worcester. Devon Paliani and Blade Jenkins are the others.
Berg was the recipient of that best pass of the year. He scored at 14:09 of the third period after linemate Drew Callin slid it directly onto his blade while sliding headfirst along the ice towards the left corner.
“Those were good plays by the guys who passed the puck,” Berg said. “I just really tapped it in.”
On the Callin pass, Berg had to make up his mind quickly.
“I had thought about going over there,” he said. “I knew Call, had met him a couple years ago, had seen some of his skills, so I said to myself I think he can make that play.”
Anyone who watched the Nov. 1 game would think they had done serious time travel Wednesday night.
“We’ve worked on trying to find our game from a systematic perspective, and detail,” Tuzzolino said. “I think the Florida series really taught us how we need to engage physically shift after shift.”
Burke had the only Reading goal. It came at 16:31 of the third period and made the score 3-1 with Royals goaltender Yaniv Perets on the bench. DeMelis hit an empty net at 19:14 for his team leading 11th goal.
By Bill Ballou
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