The Rebels continued the previous week’s success at home by beating the Johnstown Tomahawks 5-3 at the IceWorks Skating Complex, in what is becoming a heated rivalry between the two teams.
Both teams entered the game with winning records. The Rebels got on the board first with a nice power play goal scored by Drew Blackmum at the 7:27 mark of the first period with assist from Ryan Solomon and Kristofers Bindulis. Nine minutes later Johnstown light the lamp with a powerplay goal when the Tomahawks Alex Alger scored on a backdoor pass from Casey Linkenheld that tied the score. Andrew Zerban scored to put the Rebels up 2-1 and then Gvido Jansons scored with five seconds left in the opening period.
But the fireworks weren’t over at the end of the first period.
After the siren sounded to end a frustrating first period for the Tomahawks, Logan Hudson kept jawing at the Rebels. Evgeny Yakovlev took exception to it and pummeled him in a fight that sent the crowd and team into frenzy.
After switching goalies to start the second period, the Tomahawks came out hitting. But Victor Bergstrom took a pass from Connor Wood to put the Rebels up 4-1 at the 9:48 mark of the middle period. Johnstown got one back when Brendan Jaquay beat Rebels goalie Darion Hanson.
The Tomahawks Zak Galambos made things interesting when he scored on a broken play at the 15:33 mark of the third period. But Dean Balasmo scored on a nice feed from Evgeny Yakovlev and Victor Bergstrom with almost a minute and a half left in the final period to seal the victory.
The Rebels next game is tonight against East Division leader New Jersey Titans at 7:00pm.
Game Notes: This is the Rebels Breast Cancer Awareness weekend. The team is wearing special jerseys (hence the pink uniforms in the photograph) that are being auctioned off at the conclusion of the tonight’s Titans game. All proceeds go to Living Beyond Breast Cancer. There is a silent auction being held. If you would like to bid on a jersey, please click here.
Click here for the box score.
