JOHNSTOWN — The Johnstown Chiefs were 27 seconds from savoring their first win of the ECHL season on Saturday night.
Instead, they settled for their first point of the year after Elmira netted a late goal in regulation and then scored in overtime to beat Johnstown 2-1.
First-year coach Jeff Flanagan’s Chiefs remain winless in four games (0-3-1) after the setback in front of a sparse crowd of 1,630 at Cambria County War Memorial Arena.
“We’ve progressively been improving,” Flanagan said. “Guys have been working towards the goal of winning hockey games. We thought we had it, but at the last minute it was stolen away from us.”
The Chiefs nearly delivered a win with new investor Steve Posner watching for the first time from the auxiliary press box.
The New York-based investor teamed with Chiefs majority owner Neil Smith to bolster the ECHL team’s finances just prior to the season.
Posner also is part of a New York-based investment group that owns the Class AAA Nashville Sounds minor league baseball team. He said he enjoyed his first visit to Johnstown and plans to bring his family to the city for the Thanksgiving weekend games.
By then, the Chiefs hope they will have rebounded from this sluggish start to the season.
The Chiefs and Jackals played even throughout most of the game, though Elmira outshot Johnstown 41-29 and put constant pressure on Chiefs goaltender Kris Mayotte in the final minutes until Ben Wright tied the game with a shot just inside the far post at 19:33. Justin Donati and Wes Cunningham set up the play with goaltender Chris Holt pulled for an extra attacker.
“In the 6-on-5 at the end the guy made a ridiculous pass that kind of sat down at the right time for the guy to shoot it,” Flanagan said.
Elmira’s Chase Fitzpatrick scored with 1:07 left in overtime to end the game.
“We played well all game and we had a lot of chances that we didn’t capitalize on,” Flanagan said.
“We shouldn’t have been in that situation to go into overtime but we were.”
One bounce that did fall for the Chiefs resulted in Connor Shields’ first goal of the season.
Mike Bartlett’s hard skating into the zone set up the chance, as Shields, a Dartmouth product, played a carom behind the cage and put it into the net.
“The one thing we’ve been working on for the last week and a half is just stopping at the net, shooting for rebounds and being there to put them away,” Flanagan said. “That’s what we did there. The stuff we practiced is getting into our games, which is always positive. It just would have been nice to have more of those.”
Notes: Former Johnstown Jets star Reg Kent celebrated his 65th birthday at the game. … For the second straight home game, a “Hanson Brother” was in attendance. This time, Steve Carlson, the former Jets skater and ex-Chiefs coach, watched from Section 13. Carlson, who played Steve Hanson in “Slap Shot,” was visiting family. Dave Hanson was a special guest during the home opener. … The Chiefs might take some consolation in the fact that the franchise’s two longest winless streaks to open a season came during playoff years. The 1993-94 Chiefs opened 0-4-1 before winning 37 games, and the 2005-06 Chiefs were 0-6-4 before finishing 30-26-16.
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dave lloyd/the tribune-democrat Chiefs goalie Kris Mayotte and Justin Donati of the Jackals battle for the puck during the first period of Saturday’s game. Dave Lloyd
Discussion
Chiefs allow late goal, remain winless in four games
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