The Tomahawks got things started early Saturday night, as William Persson scored on a nifty deflection from David Paluch’s initial shot to make it 1-0 Hawks only 1:44 into the game. The Generals got back though only a minute later with the tying goal coming from Dylan Schuett, indicating that we would be in for another night of back-and-forth hockey. A little bit of time went by before Will Margel sent a blistering shot to the net off a pass from Max Smolinski to regain the lead and score his tenth goal of the season. Shortly after Margel’s goal, Anthony Mastromonica and Dylan Schuett dropped the gloves to give the fans some excitement. At the 10:48 mark in the period, Northeast’s Jayden Jensen was called for tripping to put the Tomahawks on the power play. During that penalty, Brent Keefer of the Generals came up to Caden Lewandowski along the boards, stole the puck from him, and snuck the puck behind Johnstown’s goaltender Sam Evola to score a shorthanded goal, unassisted. As suspected, the period ended tied at 2.
The 2nd period started off a bit slower with only a handful of penalties and some pushing and shoving, until there was only 3:54 remaining in the 2nd period and Northeast’s Ryan Gordan scored his second goal of the season to give the Generals the lead at 3-2. Have no fear though, said Will Margel who scored his second goal of the game to tie it back up yet again with only 29 seconds remaining in the period, sending the Tomahawks to the locker room with the momentum swinging their way.
It only took Margel another 29 seconds start the 3rd period to find the back of the net yet again for his third goal of the game and give the Tomahawks a 4-3 lead. Northeast fought hard, trying to claw their way back into another tie. They had multiple opportunities with the Tomahawks taking three penalties throughout the period. There was even a moment where it looked as Northeast had tied up the game, with the official signaling a goal amid a pileup in front of the Tomahawks net. Upon further review though, the goal was called off due to contact with the goaltender. With 2:16 remaining in regulation, David Paluch was called for high-sticking, meaning the Generals would have all but a few seconds of the remainder of regulation on the power play. The Generals were able to pull goaltender Hugo Haas to have a 6-on-4 two man advantage. The Tomahawks stayed strong and kept Northeast off the scoreboard for the last two minutes, holding on to get another two points on the weekend with a 4-3 win.
The Tomahawks and Generals face off again tomorrow in Johnstown at 1ST SUMMIT ARENA for the third and final game of the weekend tomorrow afternoon at 2:30 PM. Please note the change from the initial start time of 2 PM. Get your tickets online at Ticketmaster or by calling the Tomahawks office.