Game Story

Worcester, MA — The Worcester Railers snapped a seven-game losing streak Sunday afternoon, defeating the Trois-Rivières 3-2 at the DCU Center.

Three weeks after their shootout win over the Maine Mariners on New Year’s Day, the Railers finally found themselves in the win column following a tough schedule against the top three teams in the North Division. Henrik Tikkanen made 36 saves in his only start of the weekend, Brent Moran was the backup goaltender with the Railers having three goaltenders on their roster. Nick Fea, Billy Jerry, and Blake Christensen made the scoresheet for Worcester. Opposite of Tikkanen, Joe Vrbetic made his second career appearance against Worcester with 30 saves, his performance alone kept Sunday’s game a close one. D-Jay Jerome and captain Cedric Montminy each scored for Trois-Rivières. The Railers were unsuccessful on their one power play opportunity Sunday, but their penalty kill was 3-for-3, making it a perfect weekend through all three games for their penalty-killing units.

Nick Fea connected with Quinn Ryan at 46 seconds of the opening period to give Worcester the quick 1-0 lead. Fea scored top-shelf for his third goal of the season. Quinn Ryan has had an assist on all three of Fea’s goals as a Railer. The Railers would double their lead a minute and twenty-one seconds later with Billy Jerry deflecting a shot from Christian Evers at 2:05. Railers would have their only power play at 12:57 which would be unsuccessful despite five shots on goal. Railers would lead through the first period for the first time this weekend by a score of 2-0, outshooting Trois-Rivières 16-11 in that time.

Trois-Rivières would score their only goals of the game in the second period, sandwiching a goal from Blake Christensen with an action-packed closing ten minutes of the second period. D-Jay Jerome scored the first goal around the 10-minute mark just off the faceoff and scored on the open net to the left of Henrik Tikkanen. Blake Christensen brought Worcester’s lead to two off a rebound from Billy Jerry at 14:31. Cedric Montminy brought the Lions to within one with nine seconds left in the second period. Shots would be tied at 27 a piece through the second period with Worcester leading 3-2.

Railers had two penalty kills in the third period which included a rare Closing hand-on puck penalty which was also called during Saturday night’s game. Thankfully both penalties were killed and Worcester secured its second win of 2023. Joe Vrbetic would be pulled a couple of times within the closing minutes, but the Railers were unable to make a shot on the empty net.

The three stars of Sunday afternoon’s game were:

  1. Billy Jerry (Worcester) – 1 goal, 1 assist
  2. Henrik Tikkanen (Worcester) – win, 36 saves, 0.947 SV%
  3. Brent Beaudoin (Worcester) – 2 assists

The Newfoundland Growlers beat the Adirondack Thunder 6-4 in the only other north division match-up on Sunday afternoon. The Railers are three points back from third place with 43 points and are 2-6-2-0 in their last 10 games.

The Railers face the Reading Royals in a weekend split next weekend between the DCU Center and the Santander Arena. The Railers host the Royals in the first game on Friday at 7:05.

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