The visiting Titans scored three powerplay goals en route to a 5 – 4 victory over the Johnstown Tomahawks last night at the War Memorial. In all, five different Red Buckets lit the lamp in a back-and-forth game.
It was win number 38 on the season for the Titans, the second most in franchise history (excluding the Covid year).
Michael Young gave the Titans a 1 – 0 lead just 3:30 into the game when he knocked in a rebound off the shot of Anthony Calafiore for Young’s 28th goal of the season.
Playing four-on-four hockey, Owen Luik’s wrist shot from the slot beat Johnstown goalie Alec Rajalin-Scharp with 8:06 remaining in the opening period to give the Titans a two-goal lead. It was Luik’s fifth goal of the season.
Johnstown’s Nick Ahern scored a powerplay goal at 8:02 into the middle stanza to cut the Titans lead in half.
Dominik Bartecko scored the Titans first powerplay goal of the game with four minutes remaining in the middle stanza to give the Titans a 3 – 1 lead on a nice end to end rush along the near side boards when he took a wrist shot from the faceoff circle that went off the post and past Rajalin-Scharp short side for the St. Louis, MO native’s fifteenth goal of the season.
The Tomahawks Danny Albers made it 3 – 2 just fifty-two seconds later, and then Morganville, NJ native Anthony Galante scored a powerplay goal with nineteen seconds remaining in the period to even the score at three.
The Titans regained the lead when Chris Battaini scored his first NAHL career goal (the Titans second of the powerplay game) at 9:40 into the third period to make it a 4 – 3 game.
Two minutes later Ben Yurchuk scored the Titans third powerplay goal of the game to extend the Red Buckets lead to 5 – 3. It was Yurchuk’s seventh goal of the season.
Ahern’s second goal of the game with 2:39 left in the game brought the Tomahawks within one but it wasn’t enough at the Titans earned their 80th point of the season.
Marino Ramirez stopped 29 of 33 shots in the victory while Rajalin-Scharp turned aside 17 of 22. Click here for the complete box score.
The two teams will close out their 2022-23 regular season tonight at 7:00PM.