Game Story

Parker Gahagen earned his eighth win of the season, stopping all but one of Reading’s 22 shots. Yaniv Perets was the goaltender for Reading, stopping 24 shots made by Worcester. Cam Berg had two goals in his Railers debut, he was assigned to Worcester earlier in the day by the Bridgeport Islanders. Anthony Repaci and Matt DeMelis had the other two goals for Worcester. Nolan Burke had the lone goal for Reading.

Anthony Repaci scored the lone goal through the first forty minutes of play. Repaci was fed a one-timer from Drew Callin from the opposite side of the net to the right face-off circle on Worcester’s first power play of the game at 8:17 in the first period. Railers would go on to have two more power plays in the period, of which they could not capitalize on. Hunter Johannes and Anthony Repaci would come close to fighting after Johannes hit Repaci on his way to the bench for a line change. Johannes would head to the box again after boarding Cole Donahuser with 1:29 left in the period. Shots were 8-7 Worcester after twenty minutes.

Worcester outshot Reading 10-8 in the second period. Both teams would have abbreviated power plays with Cam McDonald heading off for a delay of game call at 5:04, then Jake Willets went to Reading’s penalty box for holding 1:34 later.

Ross Mitton took a puck to the face early in the third period and did not return to the game. He was rushed down the tunnel to the locker room with head Athletic Trainer Jake Reardon and he did not return to the bench for the remainder of the period.

Cam Berg extended Worcester’s lead with a setup in front of the crease by Anthony Repaci at 6:24, seconds after Jesse Pulkkinen made a shot across the crease behind Yaniv Perets. Berg would do it again eight minutes later after Drew Callin lost his footing, but still maintained control of the puck and made a pass to Berg where he made it 3-0 on a nice wrist shot from the right circle. Berg’s second goal is a definite contender for play of the week. With 4:10 left in the third period, Yaniv Perets was pulled for the extra attacker, and 1:41 later Parker Gahagen’s shutout hopes came to an end with Nolan Burke scored for Reading. He would be pulled again just seconds after the next faceoff. Matt DeMelis put the game away with 46 seconds later, beating icing with a shot from the left corner to give Worcester a 4-1 victory.

The three stars of the game were:

1. Cam Berg (Worcester) – 2 goals, +2
2. Parker Gahgen (Worcester) – win, 21 saves, 0.955 SV%
3. Drew Callin (Worcester) – 2 assists

This was the lone North Division game on Wednesday night. All eight teams play on Friday night. The Bridgeport Islanders head to Allentown, PA to face the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on Friday at 7:05 p.m.

The Railers head to Maine on Friday to kick of a 3-in-3 weekend, and the first of back-to-back games at the Cross Insurance Arena at 7:15 p.m.

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Box Score

Scoring	1	2	3	T
	0	0	1	1
	1	0	3	4

Shots	1	2	3	T
	7	6	9	22
	8	10	10	28

Score	#	Per	Team	Time	Goals	Assists
0 – 1	1	1st		8:17	A. Repaci (10)	D. Callin, A. Callin
0 – 2	2	3rd		6:24	C. Berg (1)	A. Repaci, J. Pulkkinen
0 – 3	3	3rd		14:09	C. Berg (2)	D. Callin, R. Piercey
1 – 3	4	3rd		16:31	N. Burke (6)	H. Johannes, B. Meehan
1 – 4	5	3rd		19:14	M. DeMelis (11)	A. Callin

Rosters

	No	Name	G	A	+/-	SH	PIM
G	1	Y. Perets	0	0	0	0	0
G	80	K. Petruzzelli	0	0	0	0	0
D	7	B. Meehan	0	1	-1	1	0
F	8	K. Haskins	0	0	-1	2	0
F	12	L. Devlin	0	0	0	0	0
F	17	B. Saigeon	0	0	-1	2	0
F	18	H. Johannes	0	1	-1	3	4
F	19	Z. Bannister	0	0	0	0	2
D	24	A. Guryev	0	0	-1	1	0
F	25	G. Devine	0	0	0	0	2
F	26	A. Kurapov	0	0	0	1	0
D	27	A. Mastrangeli	0	0	-1	0	0
F	28	A. Butcher	0	0	-1	2	0
F	34	J. Michel	0	0	0	0	0
F	39	C. McMenamin	0	0	0	2	0
D	43	M. Gendron	0	0	0	0	2
D	53	J. Willets	0	0	-1	1	2
F	86	N. Burke	1	0	-1	3	0
D	88	A. Kulakov	0	0	0	1	0
F	95	J. Frasca	0	0	-1	3	0
		Team:	0			0
		Totals:	1	2	-10	22	12

	Player	MIN	SH	SVS	GA	SV%
1	Y. Perets (L)	56:44	27	24	3	0.889
	Empty Net		1		1	0.000
	Totals:	56:44	28	24	4	0.857

	No	Name	G	A	+/-	SH	PIM
G	30	T. Lennox	0	0	0	0	0
G	35	P. Gahagen	0	0	0	0	0
D	3	A. Hora	0	0	+2	0	0
D	6	C. McDonald	0	0	-1	1	2
F	7	M. Dorrington	0	0	0	1	0
F	10	R. Miotto	0	0	0	1	0
F	11	L. Hatten	0	0	0	1	2
F	12	C. Berg	2	0	+2	2	0
D	14	A. Samuelsson	0	0	0	1	0
F	15	G. Veremyev	0	0	0	4	0
F	16	R. Mitton	0	0	0	0	0
D	18	M. Suda	0	0	+1	0	0
F	19	R. Piercey	0	1	+1	1	0
D	24	J. Pulkkinen	0	1	+1	4	0
F	29	C. Donhauser	0	0	0	2	0
F	37	M. DeMelis	1	0	+1	1	0
F	44	A. Callin	0	2	+1	2	0
F	77	D. Callin	0	2	+1	4	0
F	81	A. Repaci	1	1	0	3	2
D	88	G. Blanchard	0	0	+1	0	0
		Team:	0			0
		Totals:	4	7	10	28	6

	Player	MIN	SH	SVS	GA	SV%
35	P. Gahagen (W)	59:59	22	21	1	0.955
	Totals:	59:59	22	21	1	0.955

Penalties

Time	Team	Player	Mins	Infraction
06:40 – 1st		M. Gendron	2	Hooking – minor (55.2)
10:36 – 1st		Z. Bannister	2	Tripping – minor (57.2)
12:10 – 1st		H. Johannes	2	Roughing – minor (51.2)
12:10 – 1st		A. Repaci	2	Roughing – minor (51.2)
18:31 – 1st		H. Johannes	2	Boarding – minor (41.2)
05:04 – 2nd		C. McDonald	2	Delay of Game (63.2)
06:38 – 2nd		J. Willets	2	Holding – minor (54.2)
00:45 – 3rd		L. Hatten	2	Interference – minor (56.2)
10:08 – 3rd		G. Devine	2	Hooking – minor (55.2)

Notes

• Worcester Scratches: Case McCarthy, Connor Federkow, Lazarus Kaebel, MacAuley Carson, Michael Ferrandino, Porter Schachle, Riley Ginnell, Tanner Schachle, and Thomas Gale.
• Reading Scratches: Cam Cook, Carson Golder, Emile Chouinard, Ian Shane, Jack Page, Nick Capone, Ty Voit, Victor Hadfield, and Yvan Mongo.
• The Worcester Railers announced their season ticket memberships for the 26-27 season this week. As expected with the player salary increase, ticket prices have gone up a little with this increase. This writer’s season ticket went up just under three dollars per game for a lower bowl seat.
• With season ticket renewals looming it will be interesting to see what the ticket price increases will be across the ECHL. The season ticket renewal season will also be happening in the AHL shortly. Something to keep an eye on is what Bridgeport’s approach to this will be, considering there is a credible rumor surfaced over the summer that the team could move to Hamilton, Ontario.
• Henrik Tikkanen was named to the ECHL All-Star game earlier this week. Since he is currently on recall to the Bridgeport Islanders and is expected to stay up there, Jeremy Brodeur was named his replacement on the roster this week. Parker Gahagen would’ve been a suitable replacement for Tikkanen as the two have similar stats this season, though Brodeur narrowly ranked higher than Gahagen in save percentage and goals allowed average when the substitutions were named and Adirondack already had Brannon McManus named to the All-Star game. The festivities will take place on Monday, January 19 at 6 p.m. CT.
• The DCU Center named Amy Peterson as the next general manager on Wednesday, a couple hours before the Railers took to the ice. She served as the Director of Marketing for the DCU Center and more recently was the Chief of Staff for the City Manager’s office. She replaces Sandy Dunn, who served as the General Manager for 30 years and retired at the end of last year.
  
• With games across the league being postponed, the rescheduled dates for those games have yet to be announced. The Maine Mariners have mentioned on social media that the game originally scheduled for December 26 against Worcester will have its new date announced this week. The league is working to reschedule all games, all of which were divisional games. Adding a weekend into the end of the season is a possibility, the ECHL schedule as it stands ends one week before the AHL does.

Railers Lines

On-Ice Officials

Notable X Posts as the Game Happened

Railers Lines

Royals Lines

Anthony Repaci goal

Cam Berg goal

Cam Berg goal

Nolan Burke goal

Matt DeMelis goal