WORCESTER—For the third straight year, the Railers have begun the playoffs before the regular season ends.
Worcester is home again this weekend after a trying road trip to Florida. The team has 21 games left on the schedule, the first two Saturday night and Sunday afternoon at the DCU Center versus Trois-Rivieres.
All the remaining games are within the North Division. Considering that six of the seven teams in that division are fighting for three spots in the post-season — Adirondack is all but officially in — just about every game from here on will be the classic hockey “four-pointer.”
The Railers know exactly what they have to do to make the playoffs — score at least four goals in every game. They just are not sure how to do it, especially now that much of their firepower is gone.
The math involving four goals per game is simple and definite. Worcester has done that 20 times this season and its record in those games is 17-0-3. That figures out to a winning percentage of .925. Those games, though, involved the team’s top goal scorers — Blade Jenkins, Anthony Repaci and Ashton Calder.
Jenkins has been signed to an AHL contract by Hartford. Repaci, the team captain, and Calder were hurt on the Florida trip. Repaci’s injury is so substantial that the Railers named three alternate captains Wednesday: Trevor Cosgrove, Connor Welsh and Jack Quinlivan. The original group was Repaci and alternates Jenkins and Jake Schultz.
The Railers could get some help from Bridgeport for the weekend. Also, in a matter of a couple of weeks, college and junior players will become eligible to turn pro, and Worcester figures to be vigilant in that market.
“We will look for goal scoring,” GM and Coach Jordan Smotherman said.
While Jenkins’ contract is now owned by Hartford, the Railers retain his ECHL rights should the WolfPack decide to re-assign him. His loss was not necessarily unexpected and was one of those mixed-emotion moves.
“We talk about it with all the guys,” Smotherman said. “They’ve come to this league to move up, and I get that phone call and I instantly think — oh-oh — but at the same time (Jenkins) came here with the goal in mind of making it back to that (AHL) level and he trusted us to help develop him and make him a better player.
“With that comes the fear that he could take off at any point.”
Jenkins is one development success story so far. Goalie Henrik Tikkanen looks like another. He has been Bridgeport’s best netminder since being recalled. Tikkanen is 6-3-2 in 11 starts for the Islanders. Their other two goaltenders are 10-25-5 combined.
“Would we like to see him back — yes,” Smotherman said, “Has he earned his spot up there? Yes.”
Goaltending and defense have not been a problem to date. The Railers have had a chance to win probably about three-quarters of the games they lost — a goal here, a goal there would have put them in a more comfortable playoff position.
While Worcester did not score much on that 1-5-0 trip to Florida, the team hit a lot. The Railers were called for seven major penalties in the six games. They had gotten nine majors in their previous 45 games.
“In general, we asked our team to play more physical,” Smotherman said, “to kind of win the big-boy battles and when you play that way, you’ll rub some guys the wrong way. I was proud of the way our guys stepped up in those situations.”
Catching up from the road trip and looking ahead:
— Worcester has 10 home games and 11 on the road to finish the season. With a couple of exceptions, the North Division has been 50-50 at home so where the games are played should not make much of a difference.
— The Railers are done with non-division games and that should help. They were 3-8-1 outside the North Division and are 19-15-5 within the division. Worcester plays Trois-Rivieres seven more times, Reading five, Maine four, Newfoundland three and Adirondack two. The Railers are done with Norfolk, which won the season series, 6-4-0.
Adirondack will be hard for anyone to catch. A year ago this month the Thunder was in fifth place with a record of 16-21-3. Adirondack is 49-21-5 since then.
— Carson MacKinnon made his debut on the Florida trip. He is Ryan MacKinnon’s brother. That makes it four brother combos in team history. The list also includes Anthony and Drew Callin; Nick and Chris Saracino; and Kevin, Brian and Ted Hart.
The only brothers who have played together here are the Saracinos — three games in 2017-18; and Ted and Brian Hart, who played one game together on Dec. 29, 2021.
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
