JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – The Johnstown Tomahawks snapped a scoreless streak that extended over parts of four consecutive games to force overtime, but the Maine Nordiques netted the game-winner late in the extra session Friday night.Maine’s Austin Borggaard scored with 1:13 remaining in overtime, as the Nordiques edged the Tomahawks 2-1 in front of 1,412 fans at 1st Summit Arena @ Cambria County War Memorial.“For 60 minutes, we competed. We were locked into our X’s and O’s,” Tomahawks coach Adam Houli said. “Obviously, we wanted the extra point, but we’re happy with how our execution was tonight.”The second-place Nordiques (17-7-2) took a 1-0 advantage on Rylan Oster’s goal at 8:08 of the second period.Johnstown (12-10-4) tied the score via Sean Leetch’s goal 12:38 into the final period.“Leetch had played well all night,” Houli said. “He was getting chances.“We had a great opportunity and found a good bounce and buried it off the bounce. Just good execution.”The goal snapped the Tomahawks’ string of 173 minutes, 37 seconds without a goal scored. Last weekend, the New Jersey Titans shut out Johnstown on back-to-back nights.Prior to Leetch’s goal with 7:22 remaining in the game, Johnstown hadn’t scored since Charlie Zetterkvist’s goal with 59 seconds left in a 4-1 home win over Philadelphia Nov. 22.Both Tomahawks goaltender Zack Ferris (25 shots, 23 saves) and Maine netminder Lukas Fursten (23 shots, 22 saves) had strong performances.“In my opinion, they are two of the best goaltenders in the East Division,” Houli said. “Those two are exceptionally strong in what they do. Every time we have Ferris in the net, we feel we have an opportunity to win, and that’s something special to have.”The Tomahawks will host the Nordiques at 7 p.m. Saturday.“We want another game where we execute at the right level,” Houli said.“Hopefully, we can get two points out of it. We kept a really good team at bay and showed what we can do against really good teams in this division.”The teams split a series in Maine Oct. 31 and Nov. 1. Maine won 5-4 in overtime Oct. 31 and Johnstown prevailed 1-0 in a shootout Nov. 1.After Saturday’s contest, Johnstown and Maine will finish their season series next weekend in Maine.
