WORCESTER—The odds that Fall River will be the next city to get a National Hockey League team are better than the odds that the Railers could do what they have done for the last four consecutive ECHL seasons.
Which is, to be precise, miss out on the last playoff spot in the North Division on the last game of the regular.
The misses have all had their oddities and frustrations. This one, a two-game sweep by the Reading Royals down there in mid-month, is in line for being the most frustrating. Worcester essentially missed the post-season by one shot.
The Railers went into the weekend needing to win one of the two games. Friday night, they came back from a 3-0 deficit to tie it in the third period. If they had scored in OT, they were in. They still had a chance in the subsequent shootout but lost that, 1-0.
On Saturday they fell behind again, 3-0, but could not come back. The third period included a messy 62 Worcester PIM including six misconducts.
During this four season streak, the Railers’ record is 0-7-1 combined in the closing two games. All eight of those defeats have come on the road. That is where Worcester has finished the schedule in each of the last four years, and while home ice advantage might not be the edge it used to be, it has been a major roadblock for the Railers.
Perhaps there needs to be a change in how that schedule is drawn up, if possible. One time qualifies as a tough break. Four times qualifies as a problem
What has made the recent disappointments even more frustrating is that Worcester has not been a bad team since things returned to normal after Covid. Looking at the active North Division records for the last four seasons, the winningest teams are Reading (.603), Trois-Rivieres (.544), Maine (.526), Worcester (.505) and Adirondack (.500).
Adirondack, with a worse overall record than the Railers, has made the playoffs twice.
Worcester started the season slowly under the unwieldy three-way management combination of GM-assistant coach Nick Tuzzolino and head coach Bob Deraney. One of them had to go and it was Deraney.
The Railers played very well in 2025. They were 24-14-5 in their final 43 games, but the slow start proved to be fatal. Another deadly flaw was goals against. The Railers gave up too many.
As they digest what happened this season, the Railers might want to look at a scheduling issue beyond the end of the season. In the last three campaigns they are 1-7-0 playing the South Carolina Stingrays. Had they played another team, or teams, and gone even 4-4-0 in those games the Railers would have made the post-season at least twice.
On the plus side of the ledger:
— The Railers’ 76 points were the second-most in team history. They had 82 in 2017-18, 75 the next season when they also missed the playoffs.
— Anthony Repaci’s had a memorable season, the best of his career and the best offensive season ever by a Railers player. He set a team record with 65 points. His 29 goals were second-most in franchise history behind Jordan Smotherman’s 30 in 21-22.
Repaci is the Railers’ all-time leader in games played at 219 and in goals, assists and points at 94-107-201. On the city’s all-time lists Repaci is second in points behind Terry Virtue (210), first in goals and second in assists behind Virtue’s 154.
— Defenseman Connor Welsh was the Railers’ first member of an ECHL regular season All-Star team. He was a second-team defenseman. The only previous Railer with a full-season honor was Mitch Gillam. He was on the 2017-18 All-Rookie team.
Welsh and Mason Klee both played in all 72 games. Before this season, the only Railer to play in every game was Barry Almeida in 2018-19. Welsh has missed two games in two seasons here. Welsh’s 49 assists are second most in city history. Danny Groulx had 52 in 2009-10 and played in 80 games compared with Welsh’s 72.
— Attendance was up and finished at exactly 144,000. The second half of the home schedule all happened in 2025 and Worcester averaged a healthy 4,597 for those games.
Looking ahead to next season, the Railers need 18,841 fans to reach the 1 million mark for their history; need to win 38 games to achieve 1,000 victories in Worcester hockey history; need to attract 57,154 fans to hit the 5 million mark for the city’s all-time pro history.
— The Railers got a great all-around season from Anthony Callin, who finished with 24 goals after not scoring even one in the season’s first 15 games. Defenseman Griffin Luce had his best offensive season as a pro and finished plus-6. Lincoln Hatten came out of the Southern League and became a valuable ECHL winger.
—Tyler Kobryn scored nine goals in 25 games for Worcester after scoring four in 25 games for two previous ECHL teams. Jordan Kaplan had by far his best pro season and rookie Justin Gill — the Railers would have made the playoffs if he had been on the roster all year — had 22 points in 23 games and was plus-9.
A lot went right for the 2024-25 Railers except, as has been the case for four years, nothing went right at the end.
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
