The Worcester Railers had quite a weekend in Pennsylvania as they took on the Reading Royals in a three-game set. Not only did they pick up a crucial five standings points in the weekend series, but the visitors reached several milestones along the way.
Friday’s game featured a few milestones.
It was the 100th pro game for Connor Welsh, and what a game it was! The defenseman scored a goal and picked up an assist in the 5-0 win.
Speaking of the 5-0 win, it was goaltender John Muse’s first ECHL shutout since New Year’s Eve in 2018.
Zach White picked up an assist and later a goal in Friday’s matchup, bringing the forward to 100 total points in the ECHL.
The following game saw a couple more milestones for the Railers.
Saturday marked the 100th game with Jordan Smotherman as Head Coach and General Manager. His team went 46-45-7-2 in those 100 games.
With all the 100s floating around, there was a one thrown in there as well, as rookie defenseman John Copeland scored his first pro goal during the second period Saturday.
Forward Anthony Repaci is still awaiting his own milestone, however. The captain scored Friday, bringing him one goal shy of tying Barry Almeida for the franchise record. He was unable to score again the remainder of the weekend, though he did pick up an assist Sunday.
In addition to reaching all these individual milestones, the Railers also achieved an impressive five points on the weekend, with two wins and an overtime loss against the Royals. Furthermore, in this week of four games in five days, Worcester went 3-0-1-0, collecting a total of seven standings points. Additionally, the Railers are currently on a six-game point streak, with a record of 5-0-1-0 in that span.
And the team is doing all this without either of their regular netminders (Tristan Lennox and Henrik Tikkanen). Lennox was injured in Reading back on December 15th and has been on injured reserve ever since. Tikkanen was called up to the Bridgeport Islanders of the American Hockey League.
With the call-up, Tikkanen was able to get his first AHL start and, ultimately, his first AHL victory on Friday.
Forward Jake Pivonka, also on a call-up to Bridgeport, picked up his first AHL point Friday. Pivonka assisted on Cole Bardreau’s second period goal in the 6-5 Bridgeport overtime win.
The Railers’ success is coming at the perfect time, as the Norfolk Admirals, Trois-Rivières Lions, and Newfoundland Growlers have all been faltering as of late. The Admirals are 1-4-0-0 in their last five games; Norfolk went 7-5-1-0 in December. The Lions are 2-6-2-0 in their last ten; Trois-Rivières went 4-8-2-0 in December. The Growlers are 1-2-1-0 since the Christmas break, with their lone victory needing overtime to be decided; Newfoundland went 6-5-1-0 in December.
The fifth-place Railers now trail the second-place Admirals by only two points and are only one point behind both the Lions and Growlers.
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