Johnstown’s Zach Aben scored with 2:48 remaining in the third period to give the visiting Tomahawks a 1 – 0 victory over the Rebels to complete a weekend sweep between the two teams.
Johnstown’s win took the luster off Rebels’ netminder Lukas Fursten’s shine as the goaltender played outstanding to keep his team in the game. In fact, Tomahawks goaltender Zack Ferris was equally impressive as the two goalers combined to stop 77 of 78 shots during the contest.
Both teams had their chances throughout the game, but Fursten and Ferris denied them. After two periods of play, Fursten had turned aside all 22 shots he faced while Ferris had stopped 26.
As the game went into the third period, each team had their chance to convert but couldn’t. Finally, as the game was coming to an end, Aben was able to. After the Tomahawks dumped the puck into the Rebels far side corner, it was picked up by Even Johnson who rimmed the puck behind his own net to Luke DeVries in the near side corner. DeVries tried to send a reverse pass to Johnson, but it was intercepted by the Tomahawks’ Nick White along the end board and White made a centering pass out front to Aben who was all alone in the slot and White took a wrist shot that beat Fursten glove side to score the game winner. It was Aben’s fifth goal of the season.
In all, Fursten stopped 34 of 35 shots while Ferris turned aside 43 he faced for his first shutout of the season. Click here for the complete box score.
The Rebels now will have a bye week and will resume play October 6 and 7 when they travel to Lewiston, ME to take on the Nordiques.
