JOHNSTOWN —
The Johnstown Tomahawks will return home to a familiar rink with a new look.
The NAHL team will face the Soo Eagles tonight and Saturday at Cambria County War Memorial Arena.
Tonight’s 7 p.m. contest will start the “Pink at the Rink” weekend, as the playing surface at the War Memorial has been sprayed pink to raise awareness of breast cancer.
The Tomahawks (5-4-4) lost a pair of games to Soo (7-4-2) on the road last weekend but finished strong with a 4-2 win over the Michigan Warriors in Flint, Mich., on Sunday.
Jesse Kessler and Cody Gylling each had three points in the game as the Tomahawks won their first road contest of the season and moved within four points of first place in the North Division.
Goaltender Collin Brennan, acquired from the Janesville Jets last month, stopped 27 of 29 shots in his Tomahawks debut during the win over Michigan.
Gylling leads the team with 12 points, including four goals and eight assists. Brandon Brossoit is second with 10 points, including four goals. In fact, six different players have four goals.
Johnstown is 3-0-1 at the War Memorial, and the Tomahawks have won three in a row at home.
The Tomahawks have scored first in nine of their past 10 games.
Soo has earned points in seven straight games (6-0-1) after beating the visiting Tomahawks twice last weekend. The Eagles’ last regulation loss was on Sept. 22 against Kalamazoo.
Tonight begins an eight-game road trip for the Eagles, who are tied for second in the North with Kalamazoo (16 points).
Soo has two of the NAHL’s top scorers. Eric Rivard and Jorod VanWormer each were tied with Kenai River’s Matt Seidel for second in the league with 18 points. VanWormer had three assists in his last game against the Tomahawks, giving him seven consecutive games with at least one assist.
Goaltender Tyler Marble is 6-1-1 with a .939 save percentage. He had a season-high 57 saves against the Tomahawks in last Friday’s 5-4 overtime shootout win.
Soo is 2-2-1 on the road this season.
Notes: Johnstown has scored 14 goals on 74 power-play opportunities (18.9 percent) and is 55 of 66 on the penalty kill (84.9 percent). ... Casey Nelson leads the league defensemen with 44 shots on goal. ... The Tomahawks top the NAHL with 97 minor penalties. ... Johnstown, Texas and Kenai River are tied for the league lead with 14 power-play goals. ... Soo is 5 of 38 on the power play (13.2 percent) and 51 of 58 on the penalty kill (85.96 percent).
Tomahawks
Tomahawks back home for series
- Tomahawks
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MAKING AN IMPACT | Tomahawks’ first season helps business, community
The Johnstown Tomahawks filled a void for the city’s hockey-starved fans while also pumping a boost into the region’s economy during their inaugural North American Hockey League season.
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Despite playoff loss, first Tomahawks season successful
The Johnstown Towmahawks’ inaugural season opened with an overtime loss at Port Huron and ended with a gutwrenching overtime setback to the Fighting Falcons Sunday at Cambria County War Memorial Arena.
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IT'S A WRAP | Miller’s overtime goal ends Tomahawks’ inaugural season
The result of Sunday’s NAHL Robertson Cup Playoff game wasn’t the one that the Johnstown Tomahawks wanted. Port Huron’s Ian Miller made sure of that just 3:28 into overtime.
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MIKE KOVAK | Another stinging playoff setback
Before the puck dropped Sunday afternoon, the Olympia ice resurfacer crashed into the boards and a linesman lost his balance on his way to the ice at Cambria County War Memorial Arena.
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Tomahawks confident as Game 3 approaches
The Johnstown Tomahawks played winning hockey on the road throughout the 2012-13 NAHL season, but that fact did little to quell the team’s collective apprehension as it headed into Game 2 of the North Division play-in series Friday night at Port Huron.
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Tomahawks force deciding Game 3
The Johnstown Tomahawks will get at least one more game.
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Tomahawks shut out in playoff opener
A trio of third-period goals proved too much for the Johnstown Tomahawks to match as the Port Huron Fighting Falcons took Game 1 of the NAHL’s Robertson Cup North Division Play-in series by a 3-0 tally Thursday at McMorran Arena.
The Fighting Falcons, the North Division’s fourth seed, used goals from Ryan Nick, Mitch Maloney and Rick DeRosa to grab a 1-0 lead in the best-of-3 series. -
Tomahawks planning on short series
No offense hockey fans, but the Johnstown Tomahawks aren’t planning to play a home game in front of a potentially sold-out, sure-to-be-raucous crowd Sunday afternoon at Cambria County War Memorial Arena.
The goal for these Tomahawks, who qualified for the NAHL playoffs in their inaugural season in the Flood City, is to win two games at Port Huron (Mich.) starting tonight and advance in the best-of-3 North Division play-in series. -
Johnstown to open playoffs at Port Huron
If the Johnstown Tomahawks are looking to bring postseason hockey back to Cambria County War Memorial, they’ll have to at the very least forge a split of the first two games of their best-of-3 play-in series against fourth-place Port Huron.
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Loss drops Johnstown to fifth seed in playoffs
The Johnstown Tomahawks fell 2-1 to the Jamestown Ironmen and finished in the No. 5 spot in the NAHL’s North Division on Saturday.
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