JOHNSTOWN, PA — The Johnstown Tomahawks (4-4-3) kept things rolling with a 3-2 overtime victory over the Philadelphia Rebels (6-5-1) on Friday night in Johnstown to open the weekend series. Sam Esposito scored twice for his 2nd and 3rd goals of the season and Conor Griffin was the OT hero for the Tomahawks scoring just 13 seconds into the extra frame on the power play. Luc Beauparlant was victorious between the pipes for Johnstown making 31 saves. Philly got great goaltending as well from Ben Varsa who made a whopping 45 stops, almost stealing the game for the Rebels. Captain Broxton Ingle and Cam Wilson were the Rebel goal scorers.
The Tomahawks came into their second home stand of the season with lots of momentum coming off of the 5-2 victory over New Jersey last weekend and looked to use the home crowd to energize their group. Friday’s first period marked the third straight game where the two teams were scoreless after twenty minutes but again, the scoreboard didn’t reflect the style of play though as both teams still traded chances. As was the case last weekend, both teams seemed to be feeling each other out through much of the first frame in their first matchup of the season. The Rebels slightly had the edge in shots on goal at 8-7 after the first period.
Much of the same continued to begin the 2nd but the Tomahawks came out with an offensive mindset and began to put the puck on net any chance that they could. The teams also played hot potato with power play opportunities in the period but neither was able to capitalize after two chances for each team. Rebels captain Broxton Ingle was sent off with less than four minutes to play and Sam Esposito made short work on the power play to finally break the deadlock on Friday night. Esposito’s second goal of the season was assisted by Jacob Ingstrup and came after nearly 37-minutes of action. Philadelphia did get a chance to respond shortly after the goal with a late power play chance but the Tomahawks found an escape to the intermission. After a 23-shot period, the Tomahawks were now in full control of the shots on goal battle with a 30-19 advantage.
The third period got underway and the Tomahawks still had about 35 seconds left to kill off on the Rebel power play and they nearly killed it off but with five seconds remaining on the kill, Ingle made up for his penalty in the first period and found the back of the net for Philly to tie the game at 1-1. The early goal definitely sucked some wind out of the building and the Tomahawks who had not yet been rewarded for the amount of shot volume they produced up until that point. About eight minutes after the first Philly goal, Sam Esposito doubled down with his second of the game and third of the season to give the Hawks the lead right back. Tomahawks defenseman Jack Sullivan returned to Johnstown and registered an assist on the goal. Sullivan stepped right back into where he left off last season with his dynamic, Quinn Hughes like – skating ability and was an impact performer all night. However, Cam Wilson responded just about two-minutes later with a PPG of his own to tie the game right back up. The rest of the period seemed to tick off and all but guarantee an extra five-minute frame with overtime. Both teams did seem content to grab a point as the final minutes ticked off the clock. The Tomahawks did draw a penalty with under two minutes to play and set themselves up nicely to come away with two points, whether in regulation or OT. The power play wound up carrying over to OT and it took just 13 seconds for the Hawks’ to grab the OT-GWG off the stick of defenseman Conor Griffin who scored his second of the season. Jack Sullivan and Sam Esposito were credited with the assists on the goal and capped off their multi-point nights with a bang. Final shots on goal were heavily in favor of the Tomahawks at 48-33.
We’re BACK at 1st SUMMIT ARENA TOMORROW NIGHT on October 17th to host the Philadelphia Rebels again and look to earn our first weekend sweep of the season. Don’t wait, get your tickets HERE and we’ll see you tomorrow night for a 7:00PM puck drop.
BY: DREW PFEIL