WORCESTER—Thanks to Gleb Verymev’s dramatic overtime goal Sunday, the Railers ended this season on a winning streak and have more incentive than usual for them to extend it when the 2026-27 campaign arrives in October.
Yes, yes, yes….there is a baseball season to get through first and it was a very long, cold, lonely winter. This little nugget belongs in more than the back of the minds of the city’s serious hockey fans, though:
The next game the Railers win will be the 1,000th regular season victory in the history of professional hockey here.
That is one reason to anticipate October. The six-game winning streak Worcester finished with is another, although much will change between now and then. Some facts and figures from 2025-26 to sift through include a plethora of items, and here are some of them.
— While the Railers have only made the playoffs once, in 2017-18, their record has improved three seasons in a row. They had 72 points in 2023-24, 76 in 2024-25 and 77 this year.
— It may turn out to be unimportant since Worcester might end its Islanders affiliation, but every team in that organization had a better record this year than last. That includes the New York Islanders, the Bridgeport Islanders and the Railers. The trio was 112-104-20 this season and 84-115-27 the year before.
Former Railers head coach and Sharks assistant David Cunniff was a Bridgeport assistant and part of that team’s improvement from 15 wins to 34. Henrik Tikkanen was a combined 22-11-2 in net between Worcester and Bridgeport.
— The Railers had two players skate in every game this season, Matt DeMelis and Anthony Repaci. Connor Welsh and Mason Klee did the same last year. The only other Railer to do it was Barry Almeida in 2018-19.
— Repaci’s 54 points led the team in scoring. He also led last year and is the only Railer to lead in that category two years in a row. Almeida did it twice in the team’s first three seasons.
— Worcester’s games were almost evenly split between two referees and one. The Railers were 20-14-3 with one ref, 15-16-4 with two. They were called for 149 minors and 14 majors with two referees, 130 minors and 22 majors with one. David Lilly and Evan Reddick worked the most Railers games, 10 apiece. Worcester was 7-3-1 with Reddick, 7-3-0 with Lilly.
— Nick Tuzzolino has the second best winning percentage of all Worcester pro head coaches. He is 60-46-13 in one-plus seasons with the Railers. That is a winning percentage of .559, behind only Don Granato. He was 192-139-61 (.581) with the IceCats.
— Anthony Callin led the Railers in plus-minus with a plus-11. Defenseman Cam McDonald was plus-9 even though he only had 13 points, which means he was not on the ice for many goals against. MacAuley Carson was plus-9 in just 36 games and rookie Vinnie Corcoran was plus-7 in only nine games.
— For merely the second time ever the Railers had winning records both at home and on the road. They were 18-16-2 at the DCU Center, 17-14-5 on the road. It is their best road record ever. They have won exactly 18 games at home in three of the last four seasons. Worcester also had dual winning records in 2017-18.
— Empty net goals are a symptom, not a cause. Worcester has a huge ENG deficit through the years, meaning it is often behind late in a game. The Railers were in the red by 16-8 this season, 17-7 last year. The all-time mark is an ugly 75-117.
— They used 54 different players, second most ever after 2021-22. Worcester used 65 players that season with much of the turnover being a result of Covid-19 issues. Jesse Nurmi was the Railers’ youngest player at 20 years and 8 months old. Parker Gahagen was the oldest at 32 and turns 33 in May. Age is not a bad thing. Three of the team’s best players, Gahagen, Repaci and Drew Callin, were the only ones over 30. Ontario led in place of birth with 10 Railers. New York had nine.
— The Railers 35 home victories were their second most ever after 37 in 2017-18. Their nine overtime victories were tied with last year for most ever, and in the last two seasons Worcester is 18-5 in OT.
The extra period has been a good thing for the Railers in recent seasons and was especially good on Sunday. It set the stage for a historic milestone that the team hopes happens the next opening night.
