Photo Credit: Maine Mariners
The Maine Mariners had an eventful week, starting their two-week road series and making some impactful roster moves.
On Tuesday night, fans would be given the news of roster changes before the start of the roadie.
The Mariners would announce their re-signing of Chase Zieky. The forward from Connecticut was acquired from a trade with the Wheeling Nailers in January of 2023. Since his signing with Maine, Zieky has improved greatly. During his first season up north, he had a career-best, racking in 37 points (17 goals, 20 assists) in 50 regular-season games.
The Mariners would have another roster move on Wednesday before puck drop with the announcement of defenseman Ryan Bavaro being sent down from the AHL Providence Bruins.
Game One
The Mariners put together a dominant first period to dominate the game and steal a 5-2 victory over the Worcester Railers on Wednesday night at the Cross Insurance Arena. Evan Vierling and Jimmy Lambert each registered three points to lead the Maine offense.
The Mariners struck early, with newly acquired Bruins prospect Drew Bavaro scoring his first professional goal on the power play at 6:30 into the first. At 9:02, Maine doubled its lead when Lambert and Patrick Guay created a 2-on-1 in the neutral zone, with Lambert setting up Guay for his fifth goal of the season. Just over a minute later, Bennett Stockdale fired in a rebound from Christian Bergerto to make his first career goal and move the Mariners up three. Maine’s fourth goal would come at 16:23 when Vierling was able to get the puck in quickly after Sarlo and Deveaux‘s shots had been deflected. By the end of the period, they were leading shots on goal 21-1, making the rest of the game look promising for Maine.
Quickly into the second, the Railers would get on to the board when Lincoln Hatten scored on a rebound at 3:35. Worcester seemed to be a second-period team because they outshot the Mariners 16-6, but Maine did not get frazzled and kept the score at 4-1 going into the third.
The third period would be very back-and-forth for the teams. Worcester would need a miracle to even it up with Maine, but the Mariner’s defense was ready. Vierling would take advantage of a power play and get the Mariners up 5-1 at 16:40. Just within the final minute of the game, the Railers would get a shorthanded goal behind the net by Cole Donhauser, but it would not be enough to bring them back, making the final score 5-2. Ryan Bischel made 27 saves to secure his fourth win of the season, while Tikkanen stopped 33 shots in a losing effort.
Game Two
The Maine Mariners extended their road-trip win streak against the Reading Royals with a 3-2 win on Saturday night at Santander Arena. Jimmy Lambert notched his second consecutive three-point game, leading Maine to their first road victory of 2024-25.
The Mariners got off to a strong start, scoring two power-play goals in the opening period to seize an early lead. Lambert opened the scoring with a wrist shot at 7:48. After Reading’s Matt Brown evened the game at 9:33, Patrick Guay sent the puck flying past Vinnie Purpura to make it 2-1 at 16:10, which stood as the score after the first period.
The game remained neck and neck until late in the second when Brooklyn Kalmikov extended the Mariners’ lead to 3-1 at 14:16. However, just 25 seconds later, Sawyer Boulton cut the deficit back to one for the Royals after being able to sneak behind Maine goalie Nolan Maier.
The Mariners held strong in the final period, with Maier finishing with 25 saves to secure the 3-2 victory over his former team. Purpura stopped 22 of 25 shots.
With these two wins under their belt, the Mariners improve to 6-8-0 on the season. They continue their road trip with three games in Norfolk, VA, starting Wednesday night at 7:05 PM.
