The Johnstown Tomahawks dampened the festive mood last night at the Hollydell Ice Arena as Alex Legkov and Ryan Panico each had a pair of goals to lead the visitors to a 6 – 3 win over the Rebels in their home opener before a crowd of over 500 in attendance.
Legkov opened the scoring just 3:04 into the game. Johnstown’s Hayes Hundley picked up the loose puck behind his own net and skated to the far side boards. As he began to move forward, he sent a long stretch pass to Legkov at center ice and Legkov split the Rebels defensemen and walked in all alone on Philadelphia’s netminder Jack Fialkoff. As Legkov went to the slot, he veered to his left and lifted the puck up and over Fialkoff to give Johnstown a 1 – 0 lead.
Otto Polakovs tied the game three minutes later. Polakovs picked up the loose puck at the top of his own near side faceoff circle. As he went to the blueline, he passed the biscuit to Charles Panchisin on his right. Panchisin cut through center ice and went to the far side boards. As Panchisin gained the line, he made a centering pass out front that was redirected by Polakovs and past Johnstown’s goaltender Jacob Osbourne for Polakovs third goal of the season.
Klaus Jogi gave the Rebels the lead with 7:48 remaining in the first period. As Johnstown’s powerplay had just ended, Max Marquette picked up the puck in his own far side corner and passed it up to Jared Coccimiglio at the top of their own faceoff circle. Coccimiglio entered the neutral zone and made a cross-ice pass to Jogi breaking down the near side boards. As Jogi gained the line and went towards the top of the faceoff circle, he went to make a centering pass but it was redirected by a Tomahawks defender and past Osbourne for the Espoo, Finland native’s first goal of the season.
The Rebel’ lead was short lived, however, when Panico scored just nineteen seconds later to even the score at two. Panico set up the play behind the Rebels’ net and tried a wrap around to the left of Fialkoff but was stopped. The rebound came out to Tyler Aldrich who took a shot in close that was saved by Fialkoff, but the successive rebound went right to Panico who jammed in the biscuit past Fialkoff for Panico’s first goal of the season.
The Tomahawks went up 3 – 2 at 5:02 into the middle stanza. Jeremy Lecroix had the puck at the hash marks at his own far side faceoff circle and passed it up to Legkov who skated through center ice and into the Rebels zone along the boards. As Legkov gained the line, he cut towards his left at the high slot and took a wrist shot that beat a moving Fialkoff low, long side for Legkov’s second goal of the game.
Johnstown doubled their lead with 4:25 remaining in the second. As Rebels defenseman Julian Brown was bringing the biscuit up along his own far side boards, he was knocked off the puck by Johnstown’s Alexey Yarmulnik. As the biscuit rolled up the wall towards the cut, it was picked up Reid Lune who made a cross-ice pass back to Isaac Holt at the top of the near side faceoff circle. Holt stepped up and took a wrist shot that beat Fialkoff glove side to make it a 4 – 2 game.
Kris Samitis made it 4 – 3 when he picked up the rebound in the slot and beat a prone Osbourne for Samitis’ fourth goal of the season.
Panico scored his second goal of the game with 4:53 left in the game to make it 5 -3, and then Aldrich put the game out of reach with an empty end goal to close out the scoring and make it 6 – 3.
Fialkoff stopped 30 of 35 shots in defeat while Osbourne turned aside 34 of 37. Click here for the complete box score.
The teams will meet again tonight at 7:30PM for game two of this two-game series.
