The Johnstown Tomahawks sneak out of Friday night’s game against the Maryland Black Bears with a 3-2 win in overtime to secure the extra point in the standings.
Only eight seconds into the game Maryland’s Thomas Jarman gets sent to the box for a boarding minor, putting the Tomahawks power play unit to the test right away. Brendan Clark seemed to convert on the opportunity, but the goal was waved off for goaltender interference on the play. Clark came back later in the period with a blistering shot, which defenseman Caden Lewandowski scored off on the rebound, netting his second goal of the season. The Tomahawks came out flying in the first period tallying a total of 22 shots on goal, as defense held down the fort, allowing Maryland to only have three shots on net. The Hawks would carry their forward-dominant play for the evening over into the 2nd period.
At the 8:19 mark in the 2nd period, Reed Stark scores over the glove hand of Maryland goaltender Michael Morelli to make it 2-0 for the Hawks. Not long after, David Paluch gets called for a tripping penalty. As the penalty came to an end, Paluch came out of the box as the play was happening in front of him and he gets passed the puck for a breakaway opportunity, but Morelli makes the save for Maryland. After that, the Tomahawks set up a series of opportunities in the zone but can’t come up with a goal. The Hawks would add on 19 more shots in the middle frame to go into the locker room tied at 2 after 2.
Tempers flared up in the 3rd period as frustration seemed to set in for Maryland. With 8 minutes remaining in regulation, both Luke Mountain for Maryland and Max Neill for Johnstown got sent to the box for coincidental roughing minors. As those penalties were coming to an end, Maryland’s Daniel Colabufo got called for a holding penalty to give the Tomahawks some time on the power play. No changes in the score occurred, but the two teams continued with back-and-forth penalties as the period went on. With 2:31 remaining in regulation, Maryland found the back of the net for the first time of the night with a goal from Colabufo. A minute later, Josh Waters tied the game up for the Black Bears, which would send the game to overtime.
It didn’t take long for star forward John Gelatt to end the evening, sending a rocket behind Morelli for the game winning goal only 39 seconds into the three-on-three overtime period.
REMINDER: The game scheduled for Saturday December 12 against Maryland has been postponed due to the new state restrictions in Pennsylvania. A makeup date will be announced at a later time.