The New Jersey Titans were swept down the Conemaugh River Saturday night, falling to the Johnstown Tomahawks by a score of 5-1. Coupled with last night’s overtime loss, it the the first weekend sweep of the Titans by the Tomahawks since April of 2022.
New Jersey fell behind just 4:32 into the game, with a defensive zone miscue resulting in a clean lane to the net. While the Titans outshot Johnstown 16-6 in the period, they were unable to find the back of the net, and went into the first intermission trailing by a goal.
The second period saw the Tomahawks’ offense come to life, scoring a pair of goals 1:06 apart to take a 3-0 lead. Dominick Rivelli would get the Titans on the board 45 seconds later with his team leading 13th of the season, assisted by Dominik Bartecko and Logan Renkowski. For Bartecko, it was his 101st point in the NAHL. However, Johnstown answered back under two minutes later to restore their 3 goal lead, and a power play tally added the exclamation mark on a four goal second period, sending the Titans into the locker room down 5-1.
Neither team could find the back of the net in the third period as the Tomahawks cruised to their 4th victory of the season over the Titans. With the loss, coupled with a Rochester win, the Titans find themselves once more in the sixth and final playoff position in the East Division, with a record of 17-14-2. They will be in action again in less than 72 hours, taking the road to face the Philadelphia Rebels on Tuesday night at 7:30pm.