ODENTON, MD. — The Johnstown Tomahawks (0-2-0) were defeated by the Maryland Black Bears (3-0-0) by a dominant score of 8-1 on Friday, September 18th at Piney Orchard Ice Arena. Kirby Perler scored the lone goal for Johnstown and the assists on the goal came from Jacob Duval and Jack Genovese. Maryland forward Matt Shpungin continued his terror of the Tomahawks, scoring the fifth Black Bear goal of the game, his seventh goal in his last seven games versus Johnstown. Vincent Glos scored twice for Maryland after registering just six points through 27 contests last season. Tomahawks goaltender Matthew Wood was pulled from the net after 4:41 of the first period and was relieved by Dylan Bourque who made 19 saves in relief. Cole Werthman was outstanding for the defending champions, making 32 saves on 32 shots in the victory.
The first period got underway on Friday night and for Tomahawks fans it felt like deja-vu all over again from a season ago and the eight meetings with Maryland. The Black Bears jumped out to a commanding lead in the opening frame, striking four times with three of them coming within the first five minutes of play. Vincent Glos opened the scoring just under two minutes in, followed by Black Bear captain Brady Anes and Brayden Wade each scoring a minute apart. The quick goals chased Tomahawks goaltender Matthew Wood from the cage and inserted Dylan Bourque who was strong in his relief appearance to close out the first period, despite allowing a deflection goal from Jesse Gauthier with 5:55 remaining. The Black Bears took their four-goal cushion into the first break and silenced any notion that this was going to be a different Maryland squad that we saw a year ago. Shots after the first favored Maryland 14-4.
The Black Bears continued to control the majority of the game to begin the middle frame, extending their advantage to 5-0 just under four minutes into the second. The goal scorer was former Danbury Hat Trick Matt Shpungin who scored his 1st of the season and remarkably his 7th goal in his last seven games versus Johnstown dating back to last season with Danbury. His former Hat Trick teammate Tanner Terranova recorded the assist on the goal. At this point the game had been completely off the rails for the Tomahawks and were just looking for some kind of positive output they could put towards tomorrow’s rematch. Before that could happen, Maryland added a sixth goal with still over half the game left to play. Finally, the Hawks’ found the back of the net with a seeing-eye wrist shot from defenseman Kirby Perler as he sent the puck towards the net from his left point to make it 6-1 with 2:21 remaining in the second period. Jacob Duval and Jack Genovese recorded the assists on the goal. Maryland skated to the second break in total control of the scoreboard at 6-1, despite the Hawks’ getting themselves back into the shots on goal tally at 24-21 MYD.
The third and final frame got underway and as is usually the case when the scoreboard reads the way it did through 40 minutes on Friday night, things began to get out of hand. Penalties from both sides and even some questionable decisions from both sides, led to several misconducts and ejections. Maryland completed the touchdown just under six minutes into the period as Zhenya Miles scored his 2nd of the season making it 7-1. There were several more stoppages between the Miles goal and the final buzzer, as both teams continued to butt heads, especially the Tomahawks playing with a heightened level of frustration. Vincent Glos really put this thing to bed with his second goal of the night making it 8-1 with just over two minutes remaining, ultimately giving his team all the swagger they’ll need heading into Saturday night’s rematch. Final shots on goal narrowly favored the Black Bears at 33-31.
Your Tomahawks will need to turn the page immediately and figure out how they can exercise their Maryland demons within the next 24 hours to avoid starting the 2026-27 season 0-3. Puck drop for Game two versus the Black Bears will be at 7:00PM from Piney Orchard Ice Arena.
BY: DREW PFEIL