Gavin Gulash entered Friday night’s contest against the Johnston Tomahawks with only one goal this season.
By the end of the night, he increased that season total to four.
The Red Bank, N.J. native picked up the hat trick with all three goals coming in the second period, as the Titans defeated the Tomahawks in a high-octane 9-6 win at 1st Summit Arena. Eleven other skaters recorded at least a point while six of them had multi-point nights.
Johnstown struck first at 3:37 of the first period when Mitchell Hale scored his fourth goal of the season.
New Jersey responded minutes later as Nick Boyagian scored his 10th goal of the season on the power play, as the Sacred Heart commit now has five goals and seven assists in a 12-game point streak. Later in the period, Tate Singleton converted on a beautiful give-and-go with Tyler Antonucci for a shorthanded goal, putting the Titans ahead 2-1. Andy Nedeljkovic responded, however, with his third goal of the season and evened the score late in the period.
The Titans’ offense erupted with four unanswered goals to start the second period, including Gulash’s first goal of the game just 36 seconds in. Matthew Cameron notched his fourth goal of the season on a breakaway, then set up Gulash’s second goal minutes later.
Kyle Jeffers scored the team’s second shorthanded goal of the contest on a long-distance wrister at 8:40 of the second, giving the Titans a 6-2 lead. The Tomahawks got one back as Joe Kile tallied his ninth goal of the season 37 seconds later, but the Titans responded with two more goals before the end of the period. Singleton scored his second goal of the game on the power play at 16:48, while Gulash completed the hat trick shortly after by burying a rebound in front of the net. Jimmy Dowd was credited with the primary assist, giving him his first point as a Titan.
The Titans scored once more on the power play as Jeffers earned his second of the night at 7:48 of the third period. Johnstown scored three goals in the last ten minutes, but the damage was already done as the Titans held on for the 9-6 victory.
Oliver MacDonald notched three assists while the captain, Tyler Antonucci recorded four helpers. The Titans improve their record to 12-8-2 while the Tomahawks fall to 6-18-2. Both teams will continue their three-game set with a game on Saturday at 7 p.m. All of the action will be streamed on hockeytv.com.