TROY, Ohio — The Dayton Bombers had a pair of hat tricks and routed the Johnstown Chiefs 8-3 on Saturday night at Hobart Arena.
The Bombers’ Tomas Za-borsky and Greg Labenski each scored three goals as the Bombers won for only the second time in the past 11 games.
The Chiefs, tied for first place at the weekend’s outset, dropped their second straight and slipped to fourth place in the North Division.
Johnstown will play the Bombers again at 5 tonight at the Nutter Center in Dayton.
The teams traded goals in the first period, with Dayton striking first via Justin Bowers’ score at 12:47.
Johnstown’s Toby LaFrance converted for the first of three Chiefs power play goals, this one at 17:41.
But opportunistic Dayton added a critical power-play tally with only two seconds left in the first, as Labenski beat Ian Keserich.
The Bombers made it 3-1 on Zaborsky’s goal 9:14 into the second.
The Chiefs tied the game after power-play goals by Petr Pohl at 11:05 and Blair Yaworski at 13:14.
Dayton re-established the momentum with a Zaborsky goal only 19 seconds after the Chiefs had tied it.
Labenski made it 5-3 at 18:24 of the second on a controversial goal that referee Keith Kaval initially waved off.
The goal judge turned on the goal lamp, and after a discussion with the judge, called it a goal.
The game deteriorated for the Chiefs in the final period.
Zaborsky scored at 9:39.
Labenski added a penalty shot goal at 14:04.
Christian Gaudet padded the lead with another goal 14 seconds later.
The Bombers outshot the Chiefs 45-18.
Keserich had 37 saves, while Dayton’s David Shantz had 15 stops.
The Chiefs power play finished 3-for-6.
Dayton converted 2-of-5 attempts.
The tight North Division will produce only four playoff teams this year.
Cincinnati (57 points), Wheeling (57), Elmira (56), Johnstown (54), Dayton (51) and Trenton (50) all are in the running to finish anywhere from first to out of a playoff berth.
Chiefs
Bombers rout Chiefs
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Johnstown sufferes an epic loss
The final seconds ticked down in the Johnstown Chiefs’ ECHL existence on Saturday night, and even though the hometown team trailed by four goals, a standing-room-only crowd began chanting, “Let’s go Chiefs.”
That chant would be nothing out of the ordinary on most nights. But this game was the last game.
Twenty-two ECHL seasons and thousands of memories came to a conclusion when the Chiefs dropped a 5-3 contest to Elmira at Cambria County War Memorial Arena. -
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So, this is it.
Twenty-two ECHL seasons and 1,518 regular-season games.
It ends tonight at a sold-out Cambria County War Memorial Arena. -
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From goalies to grinders to scorers, the Chiefs have seen it all
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