Tomahawks edged by Brown Bears in shootout

Feb 18, 2018

Soldotna, AK – In the final meeting between the teams and final game of the weekend series, the Kenai River Brown Bears completed the sweep of the Johnstown Tomahawks 3-2 in a shootout Saturday night at the Soldotna Sports Center. 
Both teams failed to score in the first period, with goalies Jack Leavy and Kevin Lake made good saves at both ends of the ice. 
Johnstown struck first in the second period, when Ben Schmidling (assisted by Nic Azarovitz and Samuel Solensky) netted his tenth goal of the season to put the Tomahawks up 1-0. 
Shortly after, Kenai River forward Sutton McDonald scored to even things up at one. 
Then Andrew Andary (assisted by Pavel Kharin and Anthony Szurlej) tipped Szurlej’s shot past Lake to put Johnstown back ahead 2-1. 
But Kenai River would not go away, with Zach Krajnik scoring another tying goal towards the end of the period. 
Each team traded chances in the third period but neither could score, so the game went into overtime. 
The Tomahawks had a chance to put the game away when Kenai River was called for a trip. However, they failed to convert on the four-on-three power play. 
The game had to be decided in a shootout, but both goalies would not let anything past them. 
Joey Baez had Johnstown’s best chance, but his shot hit the post and the linesman ruled it a no goal. 
David Kaplan then scored the game winner in his 100th game, giving Kenai River the victory.