Wearing special pink uniforms to raise breast cancer awareness, the New Jersey Titans split the weekend series against the Johnstown Tomahawks, falling by a score of 5 to 3 on Friday night before skating off to a 5-2 victory on Saturday at the Middletown Sports Complex. The auction for the pink specialty jerseys ends tonight, and fans are invited to bid on each player’s jersey by following this link. All proceeds from the jersey sales will go to benefit Breast Intentions, a local crisis intervention charity founded in 2007.
Friday’s game saw the Tomahawks get on the board first, 3:56 into the game. Logan Renkowski answered for New Jersey with a power play goal at 11:37, assisted by Leo Schwartz and Brian Robertson for his 2nd of the season. The Titans would take the lead halfway into the second period with another power play goal, this time by Nikita Meshcheryakov, assisted by Reece Brednich and Matej Teply. The Tomahawks responded in the final minutes of the period to tie the game at 2 after 40 minutes of play. In the third, Johnstown scored twice to put the game away before adding an empty net goal. Meshcheryakov was credited with his second of the game courtesy of an own goal by Johnstown, but the Titans came up short, losing 5-3.
On Saturday, again New Jersey conceded a goal early, and they played from behind until Simon Becar’s first as a Titan at 10:24 tied the game. Christian Wood and Riley Fitzgerald picked up the helpers on Becar’s first goal since March 10th as a member of the Corpus Christi Ice Rays. Ethan Wongus ripped a one timer home with 2:04 to go to give New Jersey the lead, assisted by Dominik Bartecko and Brednich. The second period was scoreless until the Tomahawks connected with under 3 minutes to play, tying the game at 2 and setting a familiar stage for the final period of regulation. This time, however, New Jersey scored twice in a span of 23 seconds to give themselves some breathing room. First, Johnny McMahon snapped a shot from the top of the circle for his 5th of the season to give the Titans the lead, then Wongus scored his second of the game and team leading 10th of the year to put the Titans up by two. Brednich added a power play marker halfway through the period, and New Jersey avenged the previous night’s loss with a 5-2 victory.
Picking up two points on the weekend, the Titans find themselves in 5th place in the division with a 9-9-0 record. Up next is a home and home series against the Danbury Jr Hat Tricks, with a game in Connecticut on Friday night before coming back home and skating on home ice at the Middletown Sports Complex on Saturday. Faceoff for both games is scheduled for 7:00pm.