Tomahawks Blast Past Jets for a 5-3 Victory
On Guns and Hoses Night, the Johnstown Tomahawks came out firing, scoring 16 seconds into the game and ultimately outshooting the Janesville Jets 38-11 on their way to a 5-3 victory in front of 2,086 at the Cambria County War Memorial. Captain and first star of the game Mitch Kontny received a pass from Cody Gylling and shot it past Janesville goaltender Brock Kautz to give the Tomahawks the early 1-0 lead.
Johnstown (3-3-3) took advantage of the power play going 3-for-8 with two first-period power play goals and was also successful on the penalty kill, going 6-for-7.
Johnstown’s penalty killing unit was put to the test as Brandon Platt, who was playing in his first game of the season, went to the box at 5:45 for hooking. Jesse Kessler would join him in the box less than a minute later on a tripping penalty at 6:37 to give Janesville (4-3-2) a two-man advantage for 1:09. The Tomahawks were able to kill the two-man advantage while allowing just two shots.
The only time the Tomahawks allowed Janesville to capitalize on a power-play opportunity came at 13:02 after Brandon Platt went to the box for hooking at 12:17. Eric Cruickshank’s shot was able to slide past the left pad of Bodhi Engum at 13:02 to make the score 2-1.
Janesville didn’t fair as well on the penalty kill. Johnstown scored on its second power-play opportunity in the second period when Brett Bauza went to the box for interference at 7:34. Just 7 seconds later, Jaycob McCombs made it 2-0 on a goal assisted by Brandon Brossoit and Evan Hesse.
Brossoit would score the Tomahawks second power play goal by firing a top-shelf shot past Kautz at 15:54 of the second following a penalty to Ryan Gotelaere for cross checking at 14:37 to make it 3-1.
In the third period, Johnstown was unable to score on a 5-on-3 opportunity after Eric Cruickshank and Conor Lemirande went to the box. But, following 24 seconds of the 5-on-3, the Jets regained Lemirande and Gylling was able to score on the man-advantage at 7:31 to give the Tomahawks a 5-1 lead.
The Tomahawks looked sharp, proving to be strong defensively, fast, and physical throughout the game. Codey Hansen and Janesville’s David Longaker would drop the gloves at 9:36 of the first, energizing both teams.
Johnstown dominated on shots the entire night, outshooting Janesville in every period.
Casey Nelson also contributed with the game-winning goal, giving Johnstown a 4-1 lead after his shot from the point found the net in the top right corner of the goal at 13:23.
As the third period began, Janesville made a goaltending change replacing Kautz with Austin Priebe.
Janesville would not score again until the third period. Just 31 seconds after Johnstown’s 5-on-4 goal, Jason Ford would make it a 5-2 game with a goal at 8:08. Janesville finished up its scoring with Zach Diamantoni’s goal at 17:58.