Special teams prevail in 6-3 win over Tomahawks

Nov 4, 2017

The New Jersey Titans scored three power-play goals and notched a shorthanded tally in a 6-3 win over the Johnstown Tomahawks at 1st Summit Arena on Friday night.

Tate Singleton, Nick Boyagian and Todd Goehring each had a goal and an assist while Hunter Alden notched three helpers in the win. Brandon Perrone made 36 saves on 39 shots, as the Titans improve their record to 8-4-1-1.

Kyle Jeffers opened the scoring 7:35 into the 1st period by cashing in on a rebound. Singleton made a cross-ice pass to Alden, who got a one-handed shot on net. Tomahawks goaltender Jack Leavy made the initial save, but the puck went to Jeffers as he buried the rebound for his second goal of the season.

Six minutes later, Singleton scored his fourth of the season on the power play, as he batted a rebound out of midair and past Leavy to give the Titans a 2-0 lead. The Tomahawks responded with a power-play goal of their own as Ben Schmidling jammed home a rebound in front of the Titans’ goal make it a 2-1 game.

Boyagian gave New Jersey a two-goal lead again at 3:46 of the 2nd period, as he beat Leavy high with a sharp-angle shot on the power play. His tally extended his point-scoring streak to six consecutive games.

Just 50 seconds later, Andrew Husted went to the box for a slashing penalty. As the Tomahawks set up the power play, Ryan Naumovski blocked a shot and started a two-on-two rush the other way. He chipped a pass to the low slot where Wade Novak one-timed it past Leavy for a shorthanded goal, giving the Titans a 4-1 lead. With just under two minutes remaining in the period, Andy Nedeljkovic scored to bring it back to a two-goal game for Johnstown.

The score remained 4-2 for most of the 3rd period until the Titans were granted another power-play opportunity with just over five minutes remaining. As New Jersey got set up on the man-advantage, Boyagian passed it to Alden at the goal line, as he quickly fired a pass across the ice to Goehring, as he wired a wrist shot past Britt League for his second goal of the season.

The Tomahawks tacked on one more goal as Samuel Solensky notched a power-play tally, but Chris Garbe extended New Jersey’s lead to three goals once more as he cashed in on the empty net with 30 seconds left in the period.

Both teams will square off again tonight at 7 p.m. at 1st Summit Arena, as all of the action will be streamed on hockeytv.com.