JOHNSTOWN, PA — The Johnstown Tomahawks (2-4-2) were defeated by the Maryland Black Bears (8-0-1) by a score of 6-3 on Saturday to conclude the 2026-27 home opening weekend in Johnstown. Peter Morris, Conner Maione and Alex Gomes were the goal scorers for Johnstown. Maryland got multi-goal efforts from Tanner Terranova (2) and Will Schlechtweg (2) as well as tallies from Matt Shpungin and Brayden Wade. Dylan Bourque got the start between the pipes for the Tomahawks but was relived by Luc Beauparlant to begin the third period. Michael Iliff was the net minder for the Black Bears and grabbed his fifth win of the season, making 25 saves.
It was a dream start for the Tomahawks in a game where they had a chance to snap an 11-game winless streak against the Maryland Black Bears, as Johnstown wasted no time getting on the board Saturday night. Just 12 seconds into the opening frame, Peter Morris scored his first goal of the season, with Conor Griffin and Conner Maione picking up the assists to give the Hawks an early 1-0 advantage. Before Maryland could even begin to establish any attack of their own, the Tomahawks doubled their lead as Maione found the back of the net on the power play, capitalizing on a four-minute advantage after a double-minor penalty was assessed to the Black Bears. Maione’s second goal of the weekend came with Jacob Ingstrup and Sam Esposito picking up the assists, giving Johnstown exactly the start they could have asked for. However, the defending NAHL champions eventually woke up and showed why they have been the kings of the league, responding with two consecutive goals with just under seven minutes remaining in the opening frame. Tanner Terranova and Brayden Wade found the back of the net to erase the Tomahawks’ early two-goal advantage and bring the game back to even. Despite the dream start for Johnstown, Maryland answered right back as the two teams headed into the first intermission tied at 2-2, with the shots deadlocked at 12-12.
After landing the first punches of the night, followed by getting punched right back, the start to the second period felt like it was going to shift the entire feel of the game. Unfortunately for the Tomahawks, it was the Black Bears who found themselves on the right side of things early, as Will Schlechtweg scored his second of the season to give Maryland its first lead of the night at 3-2. Schlechtweg doubled down just six minutes later, finding the back of the net for a second time and doubling the Black Bears’ lead, which sapped a lot of the energy out of the Tomahawks’ bench as well as the home crowd in Johnstown. The unstoppable force that is Maryland didn’t stop there either, as Tanner Terranova recorded his second goal of the game just two minutes after the fourth Black Bear goal to extend the advantage to 5-2. After completely flipping the momentum in the second period, Maryland appeared to be running away with things, but Alex Gomes gave the Hawks some life late in the frame, cutting the deficit back to two at 5-3. Despite the late response from Johnstown, Maryland took its two-goal lead into the second intermission following an explosive second period, with the Black Bears holding a slight edge in shots at 21-20 through 40 minutes.
The third period began and the Tomahawks were still in okay shape with 20 minutes on their side, but the offense from both sides began to take a backseat to the shutdown defense of the Black Bears. Maryland limited the Hawks to much in the way of chances throughout the period, making it difficult for Johnstown to generate any sustained pressure as the clock continued to wind down. Evan Kensey did create another partial breakaway for himself with his speed, but was denied by Maryland goaltender Michael Iliff, keeping the Black Bears’ three-goal advantage intact. With 7:35 left to play in the game, Matt Shpungin found the back of the net for the second time on the night, continuing his nine-game stretch of tormenting the Tomahawks in which he has now recorded 10 goals. The Black Bears went on to kill off the remainder of the game and completed a 12th straight victory over their rival Tomahawks, putting the finishing touches on a 6-3 victory. Final shots on goal favored Maryland by a 36-28 margin as the Tomahawks saw their 11-game winless streak against the Black Bears extended to 12 games.
Your Tomahawks will be back on the road next week to take on the New Jersey Titans on October 9th and 10th. Tune into all the action LIVE on NATV!
BY: DREW PFEIL