GLEN FALLS, NY ― The Worcester Railers HC (8-11-2-2, 20pts) fell short to the Adirondack Thunder 13-6-2-1, 29pts), on Saturday night by the final score of 4-1 in front of 3,841 fans for their Teddy Bear Night at the Cool Insuring Arena. The Thunder extended their win streak to 4 games. The Railers will head back home to face the Trois-Rivières Lions at 5:05 pm on Friday, December 23rd, as one of their three “Home for the Holidays” matchups.
The Thunder scored the first three goals of the game as Patrick Grasso (10th) and Nico Blachman (2nd, 3rd) put Adirondack ahead 3-0 after two. Joey Cipollone tallied his first professional goal on a tip-in out in front before Ryan Smith (11th) gave the Thunder back their three-goal lead, and delivered the game’s final score of 4-1.
The first period saw a lot of physicality which led to a total of 24 minutes in penalties. It all started with a Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em fight toward center ice with Railers forward Jake Schultz (0-0-0) and Adirondack defenseman Darian Skeoch (0-1-1). Adirondack let the teddy bears fly early in the period after an odd-man rush goal by Patrick Grasso (1-0-1). Grasso received a pass by Grant Jozefek (0-1-1) from across the slot, moving left to right, to beat Henrik Tikkanen on his high glove side. The next goal didn’t come until the 16th minute when the Thunder Forward Ryan Smith (1-2-3) placed a low shot on net from in-between the dots on the rush to give a rebound opportunity to Forward Nico Blachman (2-0-2) and beat the outstretched blocker of Henrik Tikkanen. The Thunder lead the period in shots on goal 13-5.
The second period was a lot quieter compared to the first. Henrik Tikkanen made a lot of high-quality saves throughout the period. Blachman and the Thunder would break through, however. After a failed offensive zone entry by the Railers, Adirondack’s Forward Erik Middendorf (0-1-1) entered the right half of the Railers’ defensive zone slowly and stopped at the top of the circle. He found Blachman crashing towards the net late and blasted it past Henrik Tikkanen’s low blocker side from the high slot to make it a 3-0 game with 4:37 left in the period. The Thunder led the period with shots on goal 9-8.
The Railers finally got on the board early in the third period after a blast from the left point by Ryan Verrier (0-1-1) that was then deflected in the slot by Joey Cipollone (1-0-1) for his first professional goal. The Thunder would capitalize on a breakaway opportunity in the middle of the third after Colin Felix’s (0-1-1) minor penalty expired. Felix passed the puck up to the speedy Ryan Smith who elevated the puck upstairs where it hit the crossbar, hit a Railers back-checker, and inadvertently ended up in the back of the net to make it 4-1 Thunder. The Thunder led the period in shots on goal 11-9.
