The New Jersey Titans lost its second straight game to the Johnstown Tomahawks by a score of 5-1 on Sunday afternoon at 1st Summit Arena.
Five different skaters scored for Johnstown, who jumped to a 3-0 lead in the first period. Kade Phipps made 43 saves in his second consecutive start as the team improves its record to 8-18-2.
Matthew Cameron scored the lone goal for the Titans, who now fall to 12-10-2. Dakota Delbridge made 12 saves on 16 shots, and was swapped in the second period for Joe Halstrom, who stopped 14 of the 15 shots he faced.
Ben Schmidling opened the scoring at 6:10 of the first period as he skated around the net, turned and fired a wrist shot over Delbridge’s shoulder for his sixth goal of the season. Mitchell Hale doubled the lead at 15:29 when he entered the Titans’ zone from the left side, and weaved his way across the ice to deposit his fifth goal of the season. Roman Kraemer tacked on a power-play goal with 15 seconds remaining in the first. Delbridge made the initial save on a one-timer but the puck sat in the crease where Kraemer slammed it home.
Johnstown scored two more power-play goals in the second period. Andy Nedeljkovic made it a 4-0 lead at 8:57 by finding a rebound at the doorstep and knocking the puck in. The goal also marked the end of Delbridge’s night as head coach Craig Doremus decided to let Halstrom finish the game. At 17:24, Donovan Ott tallied his third goal of the weekend when he got the rebound of his own shot and scored on his second try, making it the third power-play goal of the night for the Tomahawks.
Cameron put the Titans on the board at 1:10 of the third period, as Zach Parrott entered the zone and made a centering feed that bounced off a skate and went right to Cameron’s stick. It was his fifth goal of the season and his fourth point in the three-game set against Johnstown. Despite peppering Phipps with 44 shots, the Titans were unable to generate any more goals as they drop their second straight game.
The Titans will look to rebound against the Philadelphia Rebels at the Class of 1923 Arena this Thursday with a 7:30 p.m. puck drop. All of the action will be streamed on hockeytv.com.