The Johnstown Tomahawks defeated the Danbury Jr. Hat Tricks Saturday in the middle game on the weekend series by a final score of 3-2, with the game-winning goal from Will Margel ten seconds into overtime.
The opening period of the game started off with good back and forth action and fairly equal zone time between the Tomahawks and Hat Tricks. Throughout the first ten minutes of the game, there were no penalties or goals for either side, keeping things moving quickly to start the game off Saturday night. The Tomahawks and Jay Ahearn got the crucial first goal of the game with 4:32 remaining in the opening frame, with Ahearn netting his 26th goal of the season. The lead didn’t last long though as Danbury’s Porter Schachle came back with a goal of his own just 44 seconds later to tie the game up at one. Moments later, the Tomahawks were awarded the first power play opportunity of the game as Adam Shuchart was called for tripping. Danbury successfully killed off the penalty, but then Johnstown took one of their own as Ethan Webb was sent off for holding with only 46 seconds remaining in the 1st period, giving Danbury an advantage to start the middle frame with the first 20 minutes ending knotted at one.
The Tomahawks open the 2nd period killing off the remainder of the penalty with ease and immediately look to adding to the scoresheet early in the period. 3:37 into the period, the Tomahawks get an extended five-minute power play opportunity as Shea Courtmanche receives a major “abuse of officials” penalty. With 44 seconds remaining in the power play, Anthony Mastromonica gets sent off for Johnstown, negating the remaining time on the power play to give Danbury more advantage time of their own. The Tomahawks penalty kill unit was successful in killing off the penalty yet again, leaving the game still tied at one midway through the 2nd. With seven minutes remaining in the period, Schachle went flying down the ice and as Ethan Webb tried catching to stop him, Schachle continued on and put the puck behind goaltender Sam Evola to give the Hat Tricks their first lead of the night at 2-1. Webb got called for tripping on the play as Schachle scored, to give Danbury another power play immediately after the go-ahead goal. With eight seconds remaining on the power play for Danbury, Courtmanche gets sent off to give the Tomahawks more time on the power play. Holt Oliphant wasted no time, scoring to tie the game at 2 just one second into the power play time for the Tomahawks as the 4-on-4 play came to an end. After a flurry of penalties, Danbury was left with a power play opportunity again with 2:28 remaining in the 2nd period. All penalties are killed and the 28 seconds remaining drain away, to leave the game tied at 2 to start the 2nd period.
It didn’t take much time to get Danbury back on the power play in the 3rd and final period as Max Neill was sent off for tripping 2:26 in. While the Hat Tricks looked threatening on the power play, the Tomahawks killed off yet another penalty to keep the game tied at 2. The Tomahawks penalty kill was tested again ten minutes later when Reed Stark got called for tripping also. The PK unit continued their ways to leave Danbury’s power play 0-7 on the night two minutes later. In the final few minutes of the 3rd period, but teams made resilient efforts to get the go-ahead goal, but neither side found success before running out of time, forcing a five-minute sudden death overtime.
The Tomahawks wasted no time at all securing the win in overtime as Will Margel scored his 22nd of the season just ten seconds into the overtime period to give Johnstown a 3-2 win.