The Johnstown Tomahawks ventured to Maryland for its first game of 2019 eying a fifth straight win over the Maryland Black Bears. They succeeded, capturing the team’s 30th win of the season by the final score of 5-0.
The Tomahawks opened the scoring with two first period goals. Johnstown forward Oliver Benwell got things started by crashing the net and batting his own rebound out of mid air into the goal to make it 1-0. Carson Briere added another goal for the Tomahawks, burying his 26th goal of the season on the power play to make it 2-0.
In the second period, Johnstown once again was able to put two goals behind Black Bears’ goalie David Tomeo. Chad Merrell scored the first goal, followed by Briere scoring his second of the game on a two-on-one to make it 4-0.
Johnstown forward Roman Kraemer capped off the night with a short side shot on Tomeo to make it 5-0. The game was highlighted by physical and rough play. Numerous big hits were thrown mixed in with post whistle pushing and shoving. This was capped off after a big hit in the final minutes and both teams’ lines went after each other. In total, 106 penalty minutes were called (55 for Johnstown, 51 for Maryland).
Maryland will try to earn its first win over the Tomahawks since October 12, 2018, in a rematch at Rockville Ice Arena on Saturday, January 12th at 7:45 P.M. ET.
