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The Johnstown Tomahawks returned to action at the friendly
confines of the Cambria County War Memorial Arena on Friday and Saturday.
The Tomahawks took on the visiting Soo Eagles, who at the
time led the season series two games to zero.
Friday's game started with early pressure from the
Tomahawks.
"I thought we came out with some jump," said Tomahawks head
coach Jason Spence. "Soo has a real good team and pucks seemed to be bouncing
their way but we will take two points."
The first period ended scoreless. The only event of note
came from a roughing penalty from Eagles forward Alexander Taulien.
In the middle frame, the Tomahawks again found themselves
fighting the bad bounces.
"The bounces weren't going our way in the second period,"
said Spence. "There was a lot of bouncing pucks and some games you don't get
the bounces and some nights you do."
Despite the bad bounces, the Tomahawks would strike first.
J.B Baker would put Johnstown ahead
1-0. Baker picked up a loose puck off of the stick of Tomahawks defenseman Jeff
Bergh.
The Eagles would even up the score minutes later thanks to a
goal by forward Mike Sabatini. Pat Gazzillo would pick up the lone assist.
Tomahawks goaltender Collin Brennan would again find the
puck in the back of the net thanks to a shot from Dallas McLaughlin.
The goal was McLaughlin's first goal of the year. Jake
Peacock and Cody Von Rueden registered the assists.
While with the Eagles in the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey
League, McLaughlin scored 36 goals and picked up 31 assists.
Going into the third period, Spence gave the team a familiar
talk.
"I told them I know we can play a lot better and just work hard
and want it more," said Spence.
The Eagles would hold the 2-1 lead until Tomahawks captain Mitch
Kontny fired a Brandon Brossoit pass past Tyler
Marble.
The Tomahawks hit the post in the dying seconds of the third
period and maintained the tie during overtime.
Kontny and Brossoit picked up goals in the shootout and
Brennan shut out the Eagles, which gave Johnstown
the 3-2 shootout win.
On Saturday, the Eagles and the Tomahawks again skated to a scoreless opening frame.
During that period however, a rivalry was born.
Soo tallied the first four penalties of the game. The most
serious was a checking from behind minor and 10 minute misconduct from Eric
Rivard.
Johnstown was
unable to convert on any of the first period powerplays.
Brossoit was ejected from the game for grabbing the facemask
of an Eagle player.
In the second, the Eagles would come to life offensively.
Michael Covach scored both of the Eagles two goals in the
period, one of which was a powerplay goal.
Again the official dished out penalties; most notable was a
10 minute misconduct to Codey Hansen.
Marble held the Tomahawks scoreless through two period and
third was no different.
Covach would complete the hat trick and Taulien would add a
breakaway go later in the period to cement a 4-0 win for Soo.
However fans will most likely remember this game because of
the third period antics from the Tomahawks and the officials.
The Tomahawks committed 13 infractions in the third period and
ended up with a total of 111 penalty minutes.
The chaos started when Eagles forward Robin Hoglund checked
a Tomahawk forward from behind.
Hansen and more Tomahawks went after Hoglund and as a result
Hansen was ejected from the game.
Minutes later, Johnstown's
Cody Boyd was ejected for intent to injure and Brandon Reinholz was thrown out
for abuse of officials.
After Boyd's ejection, the game got out of hand and the
officials had a tough time of making correct calls.
With the loss, the Johnstown
falls to 6-5-4 and now have
a total of 16 points.
The Tomahawks will travel to Kalamazoo
for their next set of games.
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