After the Johnstown Tomahawks ended the Maryland Black Bears’ five-game win streak last Saturday, the Black Bears looked to exact revenge on the Tomahawks as the two shifted play back to Piney Orchard Ice Arena in Odenton, Maryland. There, it was all Maryland as the Black Bears got goals from six different skaters, putting Johnstown away 6-2.
The Black Bears got the scoring started with a breakaway goal by forward Kareem El-Bashir, who grabbed the puck out of midair and deked to his backhand, beating Tomahawks’ goalie Mathew O’Donnell to make it 1-0 Maryland. Black Bears forward Samuel Stitz made it 2-0 with a sharp-angle shot off the crossbar and in. The lead was then increased to 3-0 when the North American Hockey League’s leading goal scorer, Maryland forward Dimitry Kebreau, scored his 13th goal of the season by beating O’Donnell blocker side on the breakaway. Johnstown then pulled O’Donnell in favor of goalie Alec Rajalin-Scharp. The Tomahawks got a goal back from forward Anthony Galante to make it 3-1 as he put a rebound past Black Bears goalie William Hakansson. Maryland forward and NAHL leading point scorer Christian Catalano got the goal back as he walked through the defense and went backhand to forehand for the goal to make it 4-1 in the first period.
The Black Bears tallied its fifth goal of the game from forward Gabriel Westling who made it 5-1 on a one-time goal. Maryland made it 6-1 just 31 seconds into the third period when Black Bears’ captain Brad McNeil sent the puck across to forward Branden Piku who tapped the puck into the empty net. Johnstown forward Justin Rapp capped off the scoring with a rebound goal to make the final score 6-2. The win will mark William Hakansson’s ninth win of the season.
Maryland and Johnstown will rematch Saturday night at 7:30 PM ET before capping off the rare three-game set on Sunday afternoon at 2:00 PM ET. Both games will be played at Piney Orchard Ice Arena and can also be streamed on HockeyTV.
