BY MIKE MASTOVICH
For 40 minutes, it appeared as if the Johnstown Chiefs were headed to an easy victory over the Reading Royals on Wednesday at Cambria County War Memorial Arena.
But nothing has come easy to this group, and when Reading overcame a four-goal deficit to tie the score late in the third, an uneasy feeling swept through the arena.
The fact that Chiefs captain Mike Knight went head-first into the boards after a third-period collision and had to be taken from the ice on a backboard and in an ambulance only made the atmosphere more tense.
The good news was that the Chiefs rebounded with a pair of major power-play goals to beat the Royals 6-4 as Johnstown earned at least a point for the third straight game and took five of a possible six points in the East Division standings.
“We started out really well and stuck to what we call Chiefs hockey,” first-year Johnstown coach Jeff Flanagan said after his initial home win of the season. “We were doing things simple, making sure we were getting to the net, battling in the corners and getting lots of shots. We had tons of shots in the first and second period.”
The Chiefs built a 4-0 lead as Mike Bartlett put in a Ryan Menei rebound in the first period. A three-goal second included goals by Connor Shields on the power play, Matt Robinson from the slot after a nice pass from Menei, and Sean Berkstresser, who blocked a Reading shot at the point and tallied short-handed.
“We’re a young team learning how to win,” Flanagan said. “We took our foot off the gas a little bit. Reading is a well-coached team. They saw the cracks and they could capitalize.”
The Royals started the third with a 4-on-4 goal by Ryan Cruthers. Former Chief Andrew Sarauer potted a pretty short-handed goal a little more than a minute later, and Ben Gordon’s blast from between the circles made it 4-3 at 8:03.
Knight was injured at 15:49, and Reading’s Olivier Labelle received a five-minute major for checking from behind as well as a game misconduct.
But the Royals’ Stefano Giliati scored short-handed, tying the game at 16:51.
“I think after that fourth goal they scored, the guys were kind of like, ‘This can’t happen again.’ We needed to win,” said Robinson, a second-year Chiefs forward. “Shields banging that one in, right now he’s on fire, and that’s good. The empty-netter helped out too.”
Shields had his second of the game at 18:08, and Troy Schwab, who had assisted on both of Shields’ goals, hit an empty net for a power-play tally from near the Royals bench at 18:42.
“Because of the penalty at the end of the game, we had a chance to win, and the guys came through.,” Flanagan said. “It’s pretty positive for us. We’re shortening that time where our young players aren’t at their peak focus level.”
