SOLDOTNA, Alaska – Donovan Ott tallied a hat trick while captain Filips Buncis registered three assists in the Johnstown Tomahawks’ 8-2 win over the Kenai River Brown Bears Friday night at the Soldotna Regional Sports Complex.
At the 7:33 mark of the first period, the Tomahawks solved a scoreless tie when Nick Bruce’s shot went past Brown Bears goalie Bailey Seagraves. Dalton Hunter and Cameron Smith assisted on Bruce’s fourth of the season.
Smith added a goal of his own seven minutes later with a goal assisted by Riley Doyon and Filips Buncis.
The Brown Bears got on the score board late in the first period with a power play marker from Ryan Mezera.
In the second period, Johnstown rattled off three unanswered goals to bring the score to 5-1.
The Tomahawks first goal in the second period was scored by Doyon, his first as Tomahawk. Mitch Hale and Nick Bruce aided on the goal. The goal chased Seagraves from the Brown Bears net in favor of Connor Poczos.
Johnstown scored again one minute later when Ott fired home a wrist shot on the man advantage. For Ott, the goal was his fifth of the campaign.
Ott scored his second of the game at 14:55 with the assists going to Buncis and Hunter.
Before the middle stanza came to a close, Kenai River cut the lead to 5-2 after the Tomahawks saw consecutive penalties called against them.
Brown Bear defenseman Matthew Thielemann’s wrister from the point ricocheted behind Tomahawks netminder Vinnie Purpura at the 18:45 mark.
Samuel Solensky scored his third goal in as many games when his shot flew past Poczos. His fourth of the season was distributed by Hayden Rowan.
Rowan figured in on the seventh Tomahawks goal after his rebound found the stick of defenseman Adam Pilewicz who scored on the power play.
Ott rounded out his impressive night with a hat trick-clinching goal on the power play at 15:58 of the third period to bring the final score to 8-2.
Purpura picked up this third win on the young season to improve his overall record to 3-1-0 while his counterpart Poczos, in defeat, saw his record move to 0-4-0.
Johnstown maintains control of first place in the East Division, improving its record to 8-1-1.
The team concludes its Alaska road trip Saturday night with an 11:30 p.m. faceoff against Kenai River. Fans can follow along with the Tomahawks social media account or watch live on FastHockey.com