The Johnstown Tomahawks defeated the Danbury Jr. Hat Tricks 5-4 on Friday night in Johnstown. Both teams had a lot of energy coming into the game, with Johnstown ready to get back at it after splitting the weekend against New Jersey last weekend in Middletown, and Danbury not having a game in roughly two months, due to COVID complications.
Jay Ahearn opened the scoring on the first shot of the night, putting a puck over the shoulder of Danbury goaltender Geno Pichora only 22 seconds into the game. It only took 37 seconds for Danbury’s Jake Veri to tie the game at 1, not even a minute into the 1st period. A minute later, Matt McQuade regained the lead for the Tomahawks, netting his fourth goal of the season. After the first two minutes of the period starting off with all kinds of excitement, things slowed down a bit until John Gelatt and Hunter McCurdy received coincidental roughing minors with 6:01 remaining in the 1st period. Then with less than two minutes remaining in the opening period, Dominic Schimizzi got called for interference and his penalty would carry over into the 2nd period, which would end with a score of 2-1 in favor of the Tomahawks.
Both sides would come back out for the 2nd period and moments after Schimizzi came out onto the ice after his penalty, he would be sent right back for another. After a few more penalties for each side, Ahearn would find the back of the net again for his second goal of the game to extend the lead to two. Six minutes later, there was a weird situation as Danbury’s Hank McDonough went to clear the puck out of the defensive zone. As the puck was going down the ice there were a few odd bounces and the puck snuck in behind goaltender Sam Evola, making the score 3-2 Johnstown. Not long after, Ahearn netted his third goal of the game, getting the hat trick and his 14th goal of the season. Left off the scoresheet was Daniel Tkac, who had multiple great opportunities in the 2nd period, but could not find the back of the net. Near the end of the period, Danbury’s Nolan Barrett got physical on Tomahawks forward Brendan Clark. Teammate Liam Whitehouse did not like that and made it known to everyone. Whitehouse would sit for two minutes and set the pace for the 3rd period. The 2nd would end 4-2 Hawks.
To start the 3rd, goaltender Sam Evola was huge in net making big saves, helping the Tomahawks keep the two-goal lead. But, with 14:31 remaining in regulation, Danbury shows resilience and Mark D’Agostino tightens the gap making the score 4-3. Less than a minute later, Matt McQuade nets his second goal of the game to get back the cushion goal for the Tomahawks. After a few more penalties, Danbury’s Jake Hewitt made it a one-goal game yet again. At the 13:39 mark, the game went back to old school Johnstown hockey as there was a big scrap involving all players on the ice. The game would end with 90 penalty minutes for Danbury and 64 for Johnstown. After that, the game would be played out and the Hawks would go on to win by a score of 5-4.
After an exciting night, the Tomahawks and Jr. Hat Tricks will faceoff again tomorrow night at 1ST SUMMIT ARENA at 7:45 PM. Get your tickets online NOW at ticketmaster.com. You won’t want to miss it.