Game Story
Worcester, MA – The Worcester Railers hosted the Trois-Rivieres Lions on Saturday night in the first of back-to-back games at the DCU Center.
Michael Bullion made his seventh start of the season with 32 saves, while Luke Cavallin stopped 27 shots for Trois-Rivières. Nicolas Guay opened and closed the scoring for the Lions, with Tommy Cormier adding a goal and Anthony Beauchamp contributing a pair in between. Griffin Luce and Andrei Bakanov scored for Worcester. Kolby Johnson recorded his first ECHL point with an assist after going scoreless in his previous seven games. Andrei Bakanov snapped a five-game drought with a goal, while Griffin Luce ended his own eight-game skid by scoring as well. While these players turned things around on Saturday night, one has to wonder who is fighting for a roster spot… Eight skaters in the line-up Saturday are without points in their last three games or more.
For the second straight game, the Railers forgot everything they knew about playing hockey in the first period and it cost them, and despite outplaying Trois-Rivieres in the final two periods, it was not enough for them to recover and stage a comeback.
The Lions struck first at 1:29 when Nicolas Guay scored on a rebound. After his initial shot and a follow-up attempt by Morgan Adams-Moisan, Guay capitalized on an open net to score from the left side. Four minutes later, Tommy Cormier tipped in a pass from Vincent Sévigny to extend the lead to 2-0 on the power paly. Just a minute after that, Anthony Beauchamp found the back of the net to make it 3-0, and seven minutes later, he added another goal to push the Lions’ lead to 4-0.
Griffin Luce prevented a repeat of Wednesday’s scoreless first period for Worcester, finding the net with 1:34 left in the frame. His shot through traffic sent the game into intermission with the Lions leading 4-1.
In the second period, the Railers gained some ground, holding the Lions scoreless while Andrei Bakanov capitalized on a rebound to narrow the gap to 4-2.
With 3:04 left in the third period, Michael Bullion was pulled for the extra attacker. Less than a minute later, the Railers got a power play making that a two-man advantage. As the puck got out of the Lions’ zone, Nicolas Guay was able to get a pass into the Railers zone where he put the game away with a shorthanded goal on the empty net with 1:10 left in the third period.
The three stars of the game were:
- Anthony Beauchamp (Trois-Rivieres) – 2 goals, +3
- Griffin Luce (Worcester) – 1 goal, +2
- Tommy Cormier (Trois-Rivieres) – 1 goal
In other North Division action, the Adirondack Thunder fell to the South Carolina Stingrays, 5-2. Former Railer Jimmy Lambert recorded a goal and two assists in Maine’s 3-2 victory over Reading in Reading. The Wheeling Nailers defeated Fort Wayne, 6-4, with forward Atley Calvert netting a hat trick.
Adirondack and South Carolina will face off again tomorrow, concluding the Thunder’s southern road trip as the only other North Division game on Sunday.
The Bridgeport Islanders were shutout 5-0 on Friday night to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. On Saturday, they lost 3-2 in the shootout to the Charlotte Checkers.
The two teams return to the DCU Center on Sunday for a 3 p.m. puck drop.
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