WORCESTER—The Railers are about to embark on their longest homestand of the season, the second-longest in team history, and they hope this one goes as well as the longest one did.
That was 11 straight games at the DCU Center. It started on Jan. 19, 2018, and ended on Feb. 10. Worcester was 6-4-1 in the 11 games, picking up 13 of a possible 22 points. The Railers lost the first three games of the homestand, then went 6-1-1 in the last eight.
The only loss in that stretch was to — it figures — South Carolina.
That hot streak provided momentum for a stretch of good hockey that wound up propelling Worcester into the Kelly Cup playoffs in the team’s inaugural ECHL season.
This homestand opens Friday night with a game versus Maine. The Mariners are at the DCU Center again Saturday night for a match rescheduled from last month. Worcester plays host to Norfolk on Sunday afternoon.
In all it includes four games with Maine, two with Trois-Rivieres and one each versus Norfolk and Reading. All are divisional matches. The next two weeks will have a lot to say about Worcester’s chances of gaining post-season play again for the first time since 2018.
The Railers are home after a four-game road trip during which they went 2-2-0. It was an eventful journey that produced several notable milestones.
Worcester won a 1-0 game in Wichita on Nov. 27. It was merely the third 1-0 victory in team history, the first since a 1-0 triumph in Tulsa on Feb. 16, 2019. Henrik Tikkanen got the win in the Railers net, beating former Sharks goaltender Aaron Dell. The shutout was Tikkanen’s second this season, the fourth of his career.
It tied him for seventh on the city’s all-time list in that category with Cody Rudkowsky — and Dell.
Anthony Repaci continued the electric start to his season, which is on pace to be one of the best offensive years in Worcester pro history. Repaci passed IceCats forward Marc Brown to become the city’s all-time leading goal scorer with 80.
Repaci has 78 assists and those 158 points are fourth on Worcester’s all-pro list. Brown (160), Jame Pollock (167 for the IceCats) and Terry Virtue (210) are ahead of him. Repaci’s hot November brought him recognition as the ECHL’s player of the month, a first for the Railers.
Worcester’s 7-4 loss to Adirondack Wednesday night left the Railers with an 8-11-1 record after 20 games, good for 17 points. That compares with 19 points after 20 games last season. Their best is 16-3-1 (33 points) in 2022-23. Their worst is 6-13-1 (13 points) in 2019-20.
There was a lot of player movement while the team was on the road. One move was the release of third-year forward Andrei Bakanov after 112 games in a Worcester uniform.
Bakanov was a fourth-liner this season and unhappy with his ice time. Bakanov was just 2-1-3 in 15 games and finished his Worcester career at 18-20-38 and minus-21 in 112 games. The Railers also had a come-and-gone player in defenseman Andrew Nielson. He played three games in Wichita and was minus-4, then was traded to Utah.
Neilson is minus-18 in 14 games overall this season.
The Railers have defensemen Christian Krygier and Cam McDonald back from Bridgeport and have signed rookie forward Zack Nazzarett out of the Southern League.
He will get his introduction to the ECHL with a three-in-three at the DCU Center this weekend. The Railers are hoping to use those games, and the entire homestand, to establish a consistent presence in the Kelly Cup playoff race.
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
