Game Story


Trois-Rivières, QC — The Worcester Railers fell 2-1 to the Trois-Rivières Lions at the Colisée Vidéotron on Wednesday evening.

The Railers scored the opening goal but allowed two in the second period. Despite making 19 shots on goal in the third period, they were unable to tie things up. Henrik Tikkanen made 28 saves in his fourteenth start of the season, and Philippe Desrosiers picked up his fifth win of the season with 37 saves for Trois-Rivieres. Worcester was unable to score on any of their five power play opportunities. Collin Adams scored the sole goal for Worcester. Ryan Francis and William LeBlanc netted goals for the Lions. It was just the third time this season Worcester lost after leading after the first period.

Collin Adams scored the first goal for the Worcester Railers at 9:39, capitalizing on a rebound after Philippe Desrosiers made an initial save. Adams was led into the zone with a pass from Bobby Butler to set-up the play. Adams was able to beat Desrosiers glove-side to extend his point streak to four games and put himself on a three-game goal streak. At the end of the first period, the Railers were ahead of their Lions with a score of 1-0.

Trois-Rivieres took advantage of a sluggish Railers team in the second period, scoring two goals in a short span of 80 seconds. Ryan Francis tied the game at 11:13, and William LeBlanc gave the Lions the lead at 12:33. The Railers struggled to generate offense during this period and only had six shots on goal.

The Lions were penalized three times in the closing three-and-a-half minutes of the third period, giving the Railers a three-man advantage (6-on-3) with Henrik Tikkanen pulled for the majority of that time. The Railers were unable to find the back of the net despite the power play and notching six shots on goal in those three minutes.

The three stars of Wednesday night’s game were:

  1. Philippe Desrosiers (Trois-Rivières) – win, 37 saves, 0.974 SV%
  2. Ryan Francis (Trois-Rivières) – 1 goal
  3. Henrik Tikkanen (Worcester) – 30 saves, 0.933 SV%

Reading Royals narrowly defeated the Maine Mariners 6-5 in the only other divisional matchup on Wednesday night. The Royals have a 9-1 record in their past ten games and have won four straight. They are four points behind the first-place tie between the Railers and the Newfoundland Growlers. The season series between the Railers and Lions is now split at one win a piece. They will face each other again on January 22nd, with the remaining three games of the series will be played at the DCU Center in Worcester.

The next stop on the road trip is a game against the Adirondack Thunder in Glens Falls on Friday. This will be the last game for the team before the holiday break before heading to Maine next Wednesday to face the Mariners.

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