Worcester Railers Fall To Reading Royals, 6-2

The Worcester Railers HC (9-14-1-1, 20pts) lost to the Reading Royals (11-7-4-1, 27pts) in the second game of a Friday-Saturday series by the final score of 6-2 in in front of a crowd of 2,955 at Santander Arena on Saturday evening. The Railers are back at the DCU Center on Wednesday, January 12th hosting the Maine Mariners at 7:05 p.m.

Reading scored three times in a span of 3:54 in the later stages of the third period to hold a 3-0 lead over Worcester after 20 minutes of play. After a five-minute major assessed to the Royals in the middle half of period two Anthony Repaci (1-0-1) and Cole Coskey (1-0-0) would score on the man advantage to cut the deficit down to 3-2. The game was still 3-2 with 1:55 left in regulation when Jackson Cressey (1-0-1) tacked on the insurance goal followed by an empty net tally with 62 seconds to play to make the Reading lead 5-2. Patrick Bajkov (3-0-3) would cap off the hat-trick on the power play with just 32 seconds to play to hand the Royals a 6-2 win.

The game was scoreless until 13:34 of the first period when Brayden Low (7th) deflected a shot home at the top of the crease and then Patrick Bajkov (9th) found the back of the net from the top of the crease at 15:18 to hand the Royals a 2-0 lead. Bajkov (10th) would then notch his second goal of the game which came on the power play at 17:28 as the Royals held a 3-0 lead after the first 20 minutes of play as they outshot Worcester 13-6.

After a five-minute spearing call assessed to Reading’s Brayden Low at 12:14 of the second frame, the Railers would make the Royals pay. Anthony Repaci (6th) was set up by Jordan Lavallee-Smotherman and from the right circle Repaci roofed it over the glove of Kirill Ustimenko to cut the Railers deficit down to 3-1. Then at 15:08 Cole Coskey (1st) notched his first ECHL goal on a one-time feed from Mathias Lafferiere in which Coskey lasered the puck over the blocker of a sprawling Ustimenko from the left circle. Worcester trailed 3-2 after 40 minutes of play but outshot the Royals 18-5 in the stanza.

The game remained 3-2 until 1:55 left in regulation when Jackson Cressey (4th) would tack on an insurance goal to make it 4-2. Grant Cooper would score on an empty-net with 62 seconds to go in to the contest to increase the lead to 5-2. The Royals then grabbed a late power play and Patrick Bajkov (10th) would cap off the hat-trick with just 31 seconds to play as the Royals defeated the Railers 6-2.

Notes:

Three Stars: 3rd Star: Patrick McNally (0-2-2, +4), 2nd Star: Trevor Gooch (0-2-2, +3), 1st Star: Patrick Bajkov (3-0-3, +1, 7 shots)… Final shots were 30-30… Kirill Ustimenko (2-4-2) made 28 saves on 230 shots for Reading… Jimmy Poreda (1-3-0) made 24 saves on 29 shots for Worcester, while Colten Ellis served as the backup… Worcester went 2-for-4on the power play while Reading also went 2-for-6… Tommy Besinger (DNP), Chris Ordoobadi (DNP), Brennan Feasey (DNP), Myles McGurty () and Grant Jozefek (IR) did not dress for Worcester… Matt Sredl made his professional debut wearing number 61… Ross Olsson led all Worcester skaters with six shots and 14 PIMS… Mike Cornell, Collin Adams, Paul Thompson, Felix Bibeau, and Ken Appleby are all on recall with the Bridgeport Islanders while Blake Christensen, and Drew Callin… Liam Coughlin signed a PTO with Springfield Thursday and Nick Albano signed a PTO with Charlotte (AHL) Friday… The Railers are now 17-17-2-0 all-time vs. the Royals and 7-11-1-0 at Santander Arena against Reading.

– Courtesy Worcester Railers