Game Story

Worcester, MA — The Worcester Railers hosted the second place Adirondack Thunder on Friday for the fourth of eleven games between the two teams this season.

Mitch Gillam started his second straight game for Worcester after a solid game in net on Wednesday that resulted in a 3-2 win and a franchise-record 54 saves in net. Ryan Hubbard received the call this morning and was signed to back up Gillam for tonight’s game. Gillam recorded XX saves on Saturday. Tyler Barnes (8th), Matt Schmalz (3rd), and Ivan Kosorenkov (5th) scored in Worcester’s 5-3 loss.

Jake Reichert put the Thunder on the board, making contact with a shot by David Kravchenko which bounced off of him and into the net behind Mitch Gillam. Tyler Barnes tied it up with under a minute to go, tapping in a shot from Josh Holmstrom in front of the Adirondack net. Shots were 15-13 in Worcester’s favor with the game tied at one.

Matty Gaudreau left the game with an apparent head injury with just under six minutes to go in the first period. Gaudreau was down for several minutes and was able to get up and skate to the locker room and did not return to the game. Gaudreau received a check to the head in the corner of the Adirondack zone by Michael Sdao. Sdao received an Illegal Check to Head (48.2) call, which is usually reviewed by the league and supplemental discipline is given depending on what the intention was on the play.

Adirondack had two goals to regain the lead in the second period at 3:15 and 8:30. Railers were quick to respond and tie the game back up with the period halfway over. Matt Schmalz picked up his first in a Railers uniform with a pass to the left of the net from Ivan Kosorenkov and pushed in. 25 seconds later, Kosorenkov scored in a similar manner with a feed from Ryan MacKinnon.

As I joked on Twitter it was like Friday Night Smackdown at the DCU Center with under five minutes remaining in the period. An Adirondack skater skated into Mitch Gillam (surprise, no call, have you seen this movie before?) setting off tempers between the two clubs. Yanick Turcotte fought Michael Sdao and all skaters were ready to fight each other, at one point Connor Doherty was ready to go with multiple Adirondack skaters. Over twenty minutes of penalties distributed between the two teams. Alex Adams picked up his first fighting major as a Railer in a fight with Andrew Tessier with under two minutes to go in the period. We were once again tied, but this time at three apiece. Shots were 28-22 in Worcester’s favor.

Michael Sdao put the Thunder back in the lead at 16:54. Peter McArthur put the game away, with a hail mary shot on empty Railers net.

Yanick Turcotte left the game halfway through the third period and did not return. Railers stick to sixth place in the north division with 29 games into the regular season. Worcester, along with Maine, Manchester, Reading, Adirondack, and Brampton, all play on Saturday.