WORCESTER—No matter what happens on New Year’s Eve in Wheeling, 2025 has been a good year for the Railers.
They arrive in West Virginia having already established a winning record for the calendar year. Worcester is 34-23-7 to this point in ’25. This breaks a streak of two straight calendar years in which the Railers had a losing record. They were 31-38-6 in 2024, 29-33-8 in 2023.
This is progress. Worcester hopes to build on that progress as it starts a new calendar year.
The Railers, and every ECHL team, are coming back from an eventful Christmas break that saw a brief players strike. The strike officially ended Tuesday when both the league and the Professional Hockey Players Assn. ratified a collective bargaining agreement.
ECHL Commissioner Ryan Crelin said in a prepared statement that the new agreement, “Significantly increases player compensation, improves health and safety and delivers on new initiatives that are responsive to our players’ needs, while supporting our league’s continued growth and ability to put an entertaining and accessible product on the ice for our fans and the communities we serve.”
Worcester lost three games last weekend which have not yet been rescheduled. Their return to action will be like one of those Polar Bear swims that happen on New Year’s Day.
Invigorating.
Five of their first six games are against two of the ECHL’s top teams. Worcester plays twice in Wheeling, then has a three-in-three versus the Florida Everblades on Jan. 8, 9 and 10 at the DCU Center. The first two games will be the main events in an IceCats Weekend celebration.
The Nailers and Everblades have a combined record of 39-12-3.
The other early January game is at Adirondack.
This is the fifth consecutive year the Railers play on New Year’s Eve, the seventh overall. Worcester is 2-4-0 on Dec. 31 but has won two consecutive times. It beat Adirondack last year, 6-5, and won at Reading, 2-1, in 2023.
The Railers have only played once at home on New Year’s Eve. They were beaten by Maine, 6-2, in 2022.
The 2024 game was a wild one. The Railers trailed, 4-2, halfway through the second period and came back to win. Their last three goals were scored by Jordan Kaplan.
They should see Kaplan in Wheeling. Both he and ex-Railer Ryan Mahshie are on the Wheeling roster. Kaplan is 1-5-6 in 16 games. Mahshie has already bettered his offensive production from last season in Worcester. He is 6-6-12 in 24 games this season and was 3-4-7 in 43 games for the Railers last year.
Those two players are familiar faces for the city’s hockey games. The Nailers also have a familiar name in Brent Johnson, who has been one of their best players.
He is not, however, the son of IceCats goaltender Brent Johnson who holds some of Worcester’s all-time records for that position. Wheeling’s Johnson was just called up to Wilkes-Barre in the American Hockey League.
The Railers-Nailers rivalry was renewed last season after a gap of several years when the teams were not in the same division. Wheeling has been one of the league’s best teams in recent seasons with a record of 101-59-7 since the start of 2023-24. The Nailers are 20-6-1 to date this year and arrive home after a 2-3-0 road trip. They are 9-1-1 at home.
Wheeling was one of the league’s best teams, leading the North Divison, when the Railers played them last January. Worcester won the four-game matchup, earning six of a possible eight points. The Railers are 6-4-4 versus Wheeling all-time with a 2-1-3 record on the road.
While Worcester’s overall record does not compare with Wheeling’s or Florida’s, the Railers have been one of the league’s best teams in recent weeks. They are 11-4-1 in their last 16 games.
Making tracks
Worcester has five players tied for the team lead in goals with eight. They are Drew Callin, Anthony Repaci, Matt DeMelis, Cole Donhauser and Lincoln Hatten. Henrik Tikkanen is 4-2-1 with a 3.26 goals-against average and .889 saves percentage since his recall to Bridgeport. Defenseman Michael Suda is 1-7-8 in his last eight games, Anthony Callin is 2-6-8 in his last nine and Drew Callin is 4-7-11 in his last nine.
Bill Ballou covered the Red Sox for the Worcester Telegram from 1997 through 2018. He has covered pro hockey in Worcester since 1994 and currently does a weekly column for the Worcester Red Sox. Ballou can be reached at vetgoalie@aol.com
