RAILERS

Railers: Rookie goalie Mitch Gillam notches 20th victory Friday night

Bill Ballou
Telegram & Gazette
Worcester's Mitch Gillam makes a save during Saturday's game against Brampton. [T&G Staff/Ashley Green]

WORCESTER — There is something about a 20-game winner that resonates throughout both baseball and hockey.

They are more common among goalies than pitchers, but where minor league pitchers hardly ever hit the 20-win plateau anymore, it happens a fair amount in minor league hockey.

It has happened for the Railers this season as rookie goaltender Mitch Gillam notched his 20th win of the season with a 3-2 victory over Brampton on Friday night. The triumph improved his record to 20-14-2.

The Worcester hockey record for most wins in a season is held by another rookie, the Sharks' Al Stalock. He won 39 games in 2009-10 to set an American Hockey League rookie record. The city has seen two other goaltenders hit the 30-win plateau — Dwayne Roloson of the IceCats in 2000-01 with 32 and Thomas Greiss of the Sharks in 2008-09 with 30.

Other Worcester pro goalies with at least 20 wins in a season are Brent Johnson of the IceCats with 22 in 1998-99 and 24 in 1999-2000; Reinhard Divis of the IceCats with 28 in 2001-02; Frederic Cassivi of the IceCats with 20 in 1997-98; Curtis Sanford of the IceCats with 20 in 2003-04; Greiss (26) with the Sharks in 2006-07; and Troy Grosenick of the Sharks with 20 in 2014-15.

Gillam’s four shutouts through Friday night were tied for the most in the ECHL this season and matched the second-most in the city’s hockey history. Roloson had six in 2000-01. Stalock and Aaron Dell, both currently playing in the NHL, had seasons with four shutouts.

Stalock did it with the IceCats in 2009-10, and Dell had four for the Sharks in 2014-15.

Gillam blanked Adirondack, 2-0, on Wednesday night and took another possible shutout into the third period versus Brampton on Friday night. The Railers won that game, 3-2, so Gillam did not register shutouts in back-to-back games.

The only Worcester goalie to do that was the Sharks' Harri Sateri in 2012. He blanked the Portland Pirates, 5-0, on Jan. 8 at the DCU Center and came back to shut out the Providence Bruins, 1-0, on Jan. 13 at the Dunkin' Donuts Center.

Gillam’s start was his 11th in a row and his 19th in the Railers’ last 20 games. Will King got the nod on March 4 versus Manchester at the DCU Center.

Gillam’s streak of consecutive starts is not even close to the Worcester pro hockey record, though. Divis made 21 consecutive starts for the IceCats from Feb. 20 through April 6 in 2002. He played every minute of each of those games, a total of 1,260, as Worcester battled successfully for a berth in the Calder Cup playoffs.

Divis was 10-10-1 during the streak which ended with the season’s next-to-last game. Curtis Sanford got the start in the final game of that regular season.

Gillam has no chance of reaching that mark, but has had no less of an outstanding season than the city’s only Austrian-born goaltender had 16 winters ago.

—Contact Bill Ballou at william.ballou@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @BillBallouTG.