WORCESTER – At the next ECHL Board of Governors meeting, Railers COO Mike Myers should suggest that, to save time and aggravation and wear and tear, the league should forego the first three periods of each hockey game and go directly to overtime.
If enough of those around the table said “aye” Worcester might be the first ECHL team to go undefeated.
The Railers did it again Sunday afternoon. Anthony Repaci scored 90 seconds into OT to give his team a 3-2 victory over the Greensboro Gargoyles. Worcester has won six games this season, three in overtime.
It is 36-32 in overtime through the years but a remarkable 12-3 in its last 15 OT games. Sunday’s fourth-period goal was the seventh of Repaci’s career.
At the time, the shot seemed like a waste of time.
Repaci was at the very bottom of the offensive zone, almost to the goal line, and at least 10 feet from Gargoyles goalie (say that fast three times, why don’t you?) Ruslan Khazheyev (say that fast three times, too) but fired away, anyway.
It went through the five-hole to earn two points for the home team.
“I didn’t have an angle,” Repaci said. “I knew I was late in the shift and I could see (Matt Stief) coming downhill. I didn’t want to make a pass that gets picked off and there’s a 2 on 1 going the other way.
“So what I was trying to do is just throw it into the goalie’s pads and hopefully have it pop out somewhere.”
Repaci has scored 97 goals now for the Railers so, just doing the math, some of them had to be overtime goals. Seven is a high percentage, though.
“I’ll take ‘em,” he said. “I’m thankful that coaches trust me to go out there for 3 on 3 and put me in good situations where there’s open ice.”
The victory was Worcester’s fifth in the last six games, all at home. The Railers finished this eight-game homestand, their longest of the season, earning 10 of a possible 16 points. That is a .625 winning percentage, a good mark in a league where home ice is not a huge advantage.
Henrik Tikkanen got the win in the Railers net. He has won four in a row with an 0.73 goals-against average. Worcester is 5-2-1 for 11 points in Tikkanen’s eight starts this season.
Riley Piercey and Matt DeMelis had the other Railers goals. Colton Leiter and Wade Murphy scored for the Gargoyles.
The Railers played one of their best first periods of the season, especially at home, and had the lead after 20 minutes for merely the second time this year.
They dominated the early going and had a lot of pressure, but not a lot of goals. Worcester was finally rewarded when Piercey got his first goal of the season at 13:36 as the Railers took advantage of a turnover created by Max Dorrington.
He controlled the puck about 10 feet inside the blue line and passed it to Piercey. He put a low shot under Khazheyev’s pads to make it 1-0.
Leiter tied it with a power play goal at 4:32 of the second period. DeMelis got the lead back at 11:04, set up by Stief. Murphy re-tied it with a shorthanded goal at 3:53 of the third period, finishing off a 2 on 1 break.
It remained 2-2 until Repaci figured he would just put the puck on net and see what happened.
What happened turned out to be a happy ending for the Railers.
By Bill Ballou
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