Photo courtesy of TopekaRoadrunners.com
BLAINE, Minn. — The Johnstown Tomahawks made the long trek to the Land of 10,000 Lakes to participate in the annual North American Hockey League Showcase. First up for the Tomahawks are the Topeka Roadrunners, a team Johnstown has met just two times before.
Johnstown enters the contest looking to get to the .500 mark after dropping two of three games to Northeast last weekend. The Tomahawks fell to the Generals in their first contest on Wednesday, September 13 by a 4-2 score. Mitchell Hale and Hunter Carrick picked up the markers. Thursday was a 5-1 loss at the hands of Northeast with Joe Kile registering the lone Johnstown goal.
Friday, September 15 witnessed the Hawks turn the weekend around with a come-from-behind 3-2 victory. After going down 2-0 in the second period, Kile and Roman Kraemer would storm back to tie the game. The team added their third goal late in the third frame when Andrew Andary potted his first in the NAHL.
GAMEDAY LINEUP
DATE: September 20, 2017
TIME: 8:00 p.m. ET
TEAMS: Johnstown (0-0-0) @ Northeast (0-0-0)
LOCATION: Blaine, Minnesota | Schwan Super Rink
VIDEO: HOCKEYTV
TWITTER UPDATES: @johnstownhawks
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SERIES HISTORY
The Roadrunners have a 2-0-0 series lead against the Tomahawks all-time. Their first meeting came back in 2013 with a 6-5 shootout loss. Topeka and Johnstown would not meet again until the 2014 Showcase when the Roadrunners shut out the Tomahawks 4-0.
A CLOSER LOOK AT NORTHEAST
Topeka comes into this evening’s contest with a 1-1-0 record after splitting an opening weekend series at home against the Corpus Christi IceRays. In game one, the Roadrunners dropped a 4-1 contest but then followed that loss with an impressive 6-1 win over the IceRays. Leading the way for Topeka in scoring on this young season is forward Will Schlagenhauf who has three assists while Nick Granowicz paces the team in goals with two.
On defense, Topeka features several key returners like Ryan Dickinson, Matt Barnes and Jake Rosenbaum. Barnes, a Barrie, Ontario, native, contributed to the Roadrunners offense last season with six goals and 10 assists. In addition to their returners, Topeka has brought in loads of potential on the back end with Cam Kuhl, Simon Sefcik, Sam Martel and Keenan Johnson.
In net, Topeka has a trio of capable goalies in Danish netminder Emil Gransøe, Sam Metcalf and Cole Weaver.
Gransøe has represented Denmark internationally and picked up a 1-0-1 record last season for the Roadrunners.
JOHNSTOWN STORYLINES
- The Tomahawks have scored just one goal in five-on-five action with the remainder of their goals coming on the power-play.
- Johnstown’s defense received a boost when it was announced that defenseman Andrew Quetell would be returning to the team after a stint with the Central Illinois Flying Aces of the USHL. Quetell was a key player on Johnstown’s d-corps last season.
- Samuel Solensky has rejoined the team after missing the first three games of the year.