The New Jersey Titans were swept in a back-to-back against the Johnstown Tomahawks at 1st Summit Arena over the weekend.
In Friday’s contest, New Jersey was overpowered by the Tomahawks’ high-octane offense in a 7-3 loss. The following night was more of a tug-of-war battle, but the Titans ultimately lost 6-4, dropping its third consecutive game. With the two losses, the Titans fall to a record of 16-14-0, and are now five points below the second-place Jamestown Rebels in the East Division.
Johnstown wasted no time grabbing the lead in Friday night’s game. Bennett Stockdale scored a pair of goals in a span of 2:28, while Pavil Kharin tacked on an additional goal to make it 3-0 after one period. Ryan Winter, who started the game for the Titans, was replaced by Brandon Perrone for the final two periods.
Mitchell Hale and Carson Briere extended the Tomahawks’ lead to 5-0 within the first six minutes of the period. Michael Outzen stopped the bleeding with his ninth goal of the season at 16:59 into the period. Kyle Jeffers and Ryan Naumovski scored in the third period, but so did Briere and Samuel Solensky en route to the 7-3 win. Carter McPhail made 34 saves to secure the victory.
The Tomahawks jumped out to a 2-0 lead the following night with a pair of goals from Cameron Hebert. New Jersey had a better response this team, as they scored three unanswered goals in the second period. Gavin Gulash put up two power-play goals while Naumovski added a shorthanded tally to give the Titans a 3-2 lead. In the final 1:21 of the second period, however, Stockdale and Briere scored to give Johnstown a 4-3 lead.
Kyler Head evened the score with his third goal of the season at 3:20 into the third period, but Oliver Benwell scored the go-ahead goal with four minutes remaining in regulation. Colin Price added an empty netter to seal the Tomahawks’ 6-4 victory.
The Titans will play one more road game before closing out the calendar year with a home series against the Northeast Generals. On Tuesday afternoon, New Jersey will face the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights with a 2:30 puck drop at Revolution Ice Centre, and the game will be streamed on hockeytv.com.