The Tomahawks suffered a last-second 6-5 loss to the New Jersey Titans on Thursday night in their only game of the week in Middletown.
The 1st period wouldn’t see much of any action until about halfway through the period when New Jersey’s Nick Seitz opened the scoring for the Titans sneaking the puck behind Tomahawks goaltender Peyton Grainer to get the Titans on the board first. 27 seconds later, Anthony Calafiore would give the Titans a quick two-goal lead in the opening period. Just 14 seconds later, Jake Suede got sent to the box for cross-checking to give the Tomahawks a power play when they needed it the most. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Caden Lewandowski scored his third goal of the season to make it a one-goal game for the Hawks with 9:26 remaining in the 1st. The two teams would combine for three goals in two minutes and fifteen seconds in the opening period and run with the 2-1 score into the 2nd period.
Tyler Nasca got the Titans right into it with a goal only 1:46 into the 2nd period to regain the two-goal lead for New Jersey making it 3-1. 13 seconds later, Ethan Webb would go to the box for two minutes after getting called for tripping. The Tomahawks successfully killed off the penalty and went right back to it. The rest of the period would be all Johnstown, starting with Brendan Clark netting his eighth goal of the season to make it a one goal game again. A few minutes later, Lewandowski would score his second goal of the game to tie things up at 3 for the Tomahawks. Only a minute and eight seconds later, David Paluch sent a nice wrist shot to the net and Brendan Clark deflected the puck in behind New Jersey goaltender Berk Berkeliev to score his second goal of the game and give the Tomahawks their first lead of the night. The Hawks would carry the 5-4 lead into the 3rd and final period.
New Jersey’s Blake Humphrey would score the first goal of the period to tie it back up only 3:01 into the 3rd period. About two minutes later, Nick Seitz for New Jersey and Anthony Mastromonica then head to the box two minutes later for coincidental roughing minors. Daniel Tkac netted his third goal of the season for the Tomahawks a little less than halfway through the period giving the Hawks the lead yet again at 5-4. That wouldn’t last long though as New Jersey’s Jake LaRusso tied the game again at 5 only a minute and twenty-two seconds later. With only 6 seconds remaining in regulation, Jake Suede found the back of the net, scoring the winning goal for the Titans to win by a final of 6-5 in a close, competitive game.
The Tomahawks play next on Friday, February 12 and Saturday, February 13 at 1ST SUMMIT ARENA when we are set to face off against the Maryland Black Bears. Tickets are available online at Ticketmaster.com.