The Rebels came back from a two goal deficit and scored three unanswered goals as the visitors took the first game of this weekend series against the Johnstown Tomahawks 3 – 2.
Honoring St. Patrick’s Day, the Tomahawks wore very sharp looking green jerseys and started the game out flying. As the Rebels were breaking out of their zone, the Hawks Luke Lynch stole the puck off of a Rebels' defenseman and took a hard wrist shot at Rebels goalie Darion Hanson who made the pad save. However, it was a deep rebound that was picked up by Andrew Romano who put the puck past a sprawling Hanson to put Johnstown up 1 – 0.
The Rebels had their chances in the first but Tomahawks goalie Andrew Lindgren made several key saves to keep his team in the lead as the game moved to the second period.
After the Rebels were assessed a penalty putting the Tomahawks on the power play, Ryan Burr took a shot from the point that was redirected by Lynch through Hanson’s five hole putting the home team up 2 – 0.
As soon as Johnstown went up by two with five minutes into the second period, the game suddenly changed seconds later. Immediately following the goal, Rebels forward Dom Garcia skated into the offensive zone. As he got to the top of the circle he blew a shot past Lindgren long side cutting the deficit in half.
With the Rebels trailing entering the third period, the puck went down low behind Lindgren. Chris Deprez made a nice pass out front to an open Andrew Bellant who beat Lindgren to tie the game eight minutes into the third.
The Rebels had quite a few more chances to take the lead but Lindgren made a nice save on a Dean Balsamo breakaway and then a follow up shot by Frank Spellman.
With approximately nine minutes left in the game, Gvido Jansons was called for holding. However, Hanson made key saves during the Hawks power play to keep the game tied. Then with 5:43 remaining, Jansons took a shot from the point that was saved by Lindgren but Spellman picked up the rebound and put it pass the Johnstown goalie. It was Spellman’s 14th goal on the season.
The game wasn’t over. Bellant was called for roughing with 2:29 left in the game. Johnstown pulled the goalie for the extra attacker. But Hanson made two huge saves to preserve the win. Lindgren had 23 saves on 26 shots while Hanson had 21 saves on 23 shots. Click here for the box score.
The two teams are at it again tonight at 7pm at the War Memorial.
