The Johnstown Tomahawks will get back on home ice after falling out of the final playoff spot in the East and will look to jump right back into the mix as they host the Elmira Aviators for a Valentine’s Weekend home stand. The Hawks’ are coming off back-to-back losses in Maryland and are struggling as of late winning just three of their last ten. Elmira has also struggled lately, losing their last game and also just have three wins in their last ten. Friday night’s action in Johnstown will kick off at 7:30PM and Saturday will be a 7:00PM start. Friday night Conemaugh Health System will be doing a giveaway for the first 1000 fans to kick off “Heart Health Weekend”. Stick around for Saturday night and celebrate Valentine’s Day with the Hawks’ and be one of the first 200 in the building to reserve a v-day rose!
A LOOK BACK AT LAST SEASON
The Aviators are one of the NAHL’s newest teams with last year being their inaugural season. Struggles tend to be expected with a new team, especially in a league as competitive as the NAHL, and that’s exactly what the Aviators endured through their organization’s first 59 games. The team finished with a record of 21-34-4 and at the end of the regular season, found themselves in 9th place in the East Division. The Tomahawks had a pretty successful season last year but ultimately had their season come to a close in a heartbreaking playoff series versus the Rochester Jr. Americans. Last year the Tomahawks and Aviators faced off six times, which is standard for most in-division matchups. The Tomahawks were rather successful versus the league’s then newest team, winning the season series 4-1-1. The first four games were played in Elmira while the last two were inside the 1ST SUMMIT ARENA in Johnstown, just as the last preview featured versus the Rebels. The majority of the six games were played at incredibly high levels of excitement. with four games finishing as one-goal games (two that reached overtime/shootout). Elmira had the largest victory, winning by four goals (7-3) at home in the early part of the season in the middle of October. The last three games of the series were one goal games, with the last one resulting in a Tomahawks shootout loss.
OCT 12TH – 3-2 W IN ELMIRA
OCT 13TH – 7-3 L IN ELMIRA
NOV 22ND – 4-1 W IN ELMIRA
NOV 23RD – 3-2 OTW IN ELMIRA
MAR 7TH – 4-3 W IN JOHNSTOWN
MAR 8TH – 3-2 SOL IN JOHNSTOWN
2025-2026 SEASON SERIES SO FAR
NOV 14TH – 2-1 W IN JOHNSTOWN (1-0 JTN)
NOV 15TH – 4-3 W IN JOHNSTOWN (2-0 JTN)
JAN 16TH – 5-1 L AT ELMIRA (2-1 JTN)
JAN 17TH – 2-1 SOW AT ELMIRA (3-1 JTN)
FEB 13TH – TBD IN JOHNSTOWN
FEB 14TH – TBD IN JOHNSTOWN
2025-2026 KEYS TO THE MATCHUP
- Despite getting swept, there were certainly positives taken from the battle against the league’s best team in Maryland last weekend, sticking around for the entirety of Saturday’s game, giving themselves a chance to win.
- Finding ways to create more traffic and generate quantity OVER quality opportunities might have to be the new direction for the offense after playing well overall on Saturday, but they only recorded 13 shots.
- The Aviators have continued their struggles since the beginning of the year, sitting six points out of a playoff spot.
- Grabbing four-points from Johnstown would get them right back into the mix, barring the weekend results from the other teams in the division.
- The Tomahawks currently have the third lowest goal differential in the division at -22 (121GF, 143GA).
- The Aviators have still allowed the most goals in the East thus far at a whopping 163 through 42 games.
- Johnstown is still led by their captain Nick Jarmain (NAHL Top Prospect) who is now the only Tomahawk still firing above a pt/game pace through his first 43 games with 44 (24G, 20A).
- The Aviators are led offensively by Matt Maglio (NAHL Top Prospect) who has recorded 37 points in 42 games, and Evan Dantas who joined Elmira earlier this season and has since recorded a point/game average in his 32 games with his new squad (12G, 20A)
GOALIE MATCHUP
JTN
- Ferris: 8-13-4-2 | 3.05GAA | .903 SV%
- Oleksiienko: 7-3-0-0 | 3.12GAA | .914 SV%
ELM
- McKenna: 9-10-5-2 | 3.145GAA | .908 SV%
- Shingles: 1-4-0-0 | 3.89GAA | .883 SV%
BY: DREW P. PFEIL