BY MIKE MASTOVICH
JOHNSTOWN — The Johnstown Chiefs held a two-goal advantage with less than five minutes remaining against one of the top teams in the American Conference on Wednesday night.
A near capacity crowd packed Cambria County War Memorial Arena.
The Chiefs put forth one of their best efforts on home ice during this frustrating season.
If Johnstown was going to win its first home game since Dec. 4, this was the night, right?
Of course not.
The Kalamazoo Wings scored a pair of late third-period goals to force overtime and then won 4-3 on Rick Cleaver’s rebound goal with two
seconds left on a Wings power play 3:44 into OT.
“We had two soft plays. We didn’t get the puck out and they turned into goals,” Chiefs coach Jeff Flanagan said after the Chiefs extended their home winless streak to 0-6-1-1. “We shouldn’t have been into overtime. That’s the best game we’ve played in months against one of the best teams in the league. We ran the show for most of the game. We made two mistakes and it lost us the game.”
The Chiefs have only four home wins (4-8-3-2) and have yet to notch their 10th victory overall (9-18-4-3). Kalamazoo is 19-9-4-0 and has been at or near the top of the North Division all season.
But the Chiefs controlled play for much of the game in front of 3,904 fans, the largest crowd of the season and only 97 shy of the team’s first sellout of the year.
“We got a point and every point helps but we need two points,” Flanagan said. “We have to play better hockey than everyone else from here on out and to the playoffs. We did play better hockey (Wednesday night) against one of the best teams in the league.
“We did it with guys like Jim McKenzie (groin) out of the lineup, Connor Shields (on loan to Norfolk in the AHL), Mike Bartlett (on loan to Lake Erie in the AHL). Trevor Hendrikx played his first game in a while and played really well. Those are not excuses. We have to find a way to win, and instead we found a way to lose.”
Chiefs newcomer Jeff Martens broke a scoreless tie with his first goal
1:46 into the second period. A Wings player had just leveled Martens with a check inside the left-wing circle. But the former Southern Professional Hockey League player regained his footing and took Troy Schwab’s pass from behind the cage and beat goaltender Jeremy Duchesne.
Johnstown outshot Kalamazoo 16-8 in the middle period, but the score still was tied at 1 after Andrew Fournier converted an extended 5-on-3 power play at 6:58. A series of three Chiefs penalties preceded the goal.
Defenseman Greg Gallagher was whistled for holding at 3:52 and Chanse Fitzpatrick’s clearing attempt went over the glass for a delay-of-game call at 5:17. The Chiefs had just about killed off the 35-second 5-on-3 advantage when Sean Berkstresser was penalized for closing his hand on the puck during a sequence near the Chiefs’ crease.
That penalty put the Wings on a two-man advantage for another 1:26. Fournier scored against goalie John Murray with only 20 seconds left on the 5-on-3.
Another new Johnstown signee helped set up Fitzpatrick’s goal 3:10 into the third. Forward Tomas Klempa skated hard on the right side and centered a pass to Bryan Marshall in the slot. Marshall slid the puck to Fitzpatrick on the left side, and he squeezed a shot past Duchesne on the stick side.
Defenseman Hendrikx’s long pass sprung Dan Collins just inside the red line for a breakaway that the right wing converted at 14:34 to make it 3-1.
Collins ended a six-game goal drought dating to Dec. 19 and netted his second goal in
15 games since Dec. 2.
The cushion didn’t last long though.
Kalamazoo’s Jeff Mason scored with a blast from the right wing that got past Murray inside the far post at 15:24.
Cleaver capitalized on a failed Chiefs’ clearing attempt to tie the game at 17:44.
