Railers Take Down Royals 6-3 to Wrap up Weekend
March 24, 2024 - ECHL (ECHL)
Worcester Railers HC News Release
Reading, PA - The Worcester Railers HC (27-28-5-3, 62pts) beat the Reading
Royals (26-31-5-2, 59pts) on Sunday afternoon by the final score of 6-3 in front of a crowd of 3,310 at Santander Arena. Worcester heads back home to take on the Newfoundland Growlers for the first time from the DCU Center this season on Wednesday, March 27th at 7:05 p.m.
Reading's Joe Nardi (1-1-2) scored his second goal of the weekend to open the scoring with 6:43 left in the first. Worcester fired back with three unanswered in the second from Ashton Calder (1-0-1), Keeghan Howdeshell (1-0-1) and Anthony Callin (1-1-2) to put Worcester ahead 3-1 going into the third. Andrei Bakanov (1-1-2) scored along with two empty net goals from Trevor Cosgrove (2-1-3), while Reading got goals from Jake Smith (1-0-1) and Tag Bertuzzi (1-0-1) en route to a 6-3 Railers victory.
Reading controlled the flow of play in the first, testing Tikkanen with nine shots on goal. Joe Nardi (16th) found a rebound along the near goal line and hammered it back towards Tikkanen, beating him near side to give Reading the late 1-0 advantage in the first. Worcester was outshot 9-6 in the first period.
The second period played out similarly for the Railers to their third period on Friday, which was headlined by a flurry of goals. First it was Ashton Calder (16th) in the slot off a nice feed from Ryan Scarfo to beat Maier and tie the game 1-1 2:04 into the period. The assist was Scarfo's first point as a Railer. Just 3:21 later, Keeghan Howdeshell placed a perfect wrist shot over the blocker hand of Maier to put Worcester ahead 2-1. Mason Klee picked up his first professional point on the goal, notching the secondary assist. Worcester's Anthony Callin piled on with a goal 3:26 later. Zach White hit him with a pass on the tape while he sped into the offensive zone and sent a wrist shot top shelf past Maier and give Worcester a 3-1 lead goign into the third.
The Railers tagged on one more early in the third with a shot from Andrei Bakanov (11th). He picked up the loose puck in the slot and wristed it past Maier to open Worcester's lead to 4-1. Reading bounced back 1:06 later as Jake Smith outwaited Henrik Tikkanen and wrapped it into the open net to make it a 4-2 game for most of the third. With the net empty, Trevor Cosgrove found the puck in open ice thanks to Andrei Bakanov chipping at it and sailed it into the empty net to make it 5-2 Worcester. Reading came back thirty seconds later with a goal from Tag Bertuzzi past the left arm of Henrik Tikkanen and cut it back down to a two-goal game. Cosgrove once again scored an empty netter, this time from 180 feet as Worcester skated away with a 6-3 win over Reading on Sunday afternoon.
Notes:
Three Stars: 3rd Star: Jake Smith (1-0-1, -2, 3 shots), 2nd Star: Joey Cipollone (0-2-2, +3, 3 shots), 1st Star: Trevor Cosgrove (2-1-3, +2, 4 shots) ... Final shots were even at 28... Nolan Maier (15-16-3-2) made 22 saves on 26 shots for Reading... Henrik Tikkanen (8-5-1-1) made 25 saves on 28 shots for Worcester, while John Muse served as the backup... Worcester went 0-for-2 on the power play while Reading went 0-for-4... Riley Piercey (DNP), Connor Welsh (DNP), Jack Quinlivan (DNP), Ryan Dickinson (IR), Anthony Repaci (IR), Ryan Verrier (IR), Tristan Lennox (IR), and John Copeland (IR) did not dress for Worcester... Trevor Cosgrove, Ashton Calder and Austin Heidemann each led the Railers in shots with 4.
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