Johnstown finally gets to play at home
Eighteen games the Johnstown Tomahawks have played this season and all of them have been on the road due to construction at the Cambria County War Memorial. Now the Tomahawks finally get to play a home game.
This will be the second series meeting between the two teams, with the first one being split at the end of October at IceWorks. The Rebels won the first game 4 – 3 with Dom Garcia scoring the game winner with twenty four seconds left while Drew Hotte and his teammates blanked the Rebels 2 – 0 in the second game.. Brennan Kapcheck and Garcia each had two points that series while Donovan Ott had four points (including two goals) against the Rebels. The Rebels went 1 -6 on the power play while Johnstown went 3 – 7.
Johnstown Overview
The Tomahawks are in second place in the East Division with a 13-4-0-1 record for 27 points (five behind the Rebels). They are coming off a 7 – 3 loss to the New Jersey Titans and they have lost three of their last five games. The Tomahawks have scored 72 goals on the season (which is second best in the league) and they have allowed 48, which is seventh best overall.
Johnstown is led by Dalton Hunter’s 23 points (11 goals and 12 assists), Ott’s 22 points (12 goals and 10 assists) and Filips Buncis’ 20 points (4 goals and 16 assists). Ott has scored the most goals on the team with twelve. Hunter and Ott each have four game winning goals.
The Tomahawks possess the fourth best power play unit in the league having capitalized on 27.2% of their opportunities. However, they have the second to worst penalty kill unit in the league with a 72.1% kill opportunity. Thomas Horn leads the team in penalty minutes with 93 while Hunter and Ott each have a +17 +/- percentage.
The goaltending tandem of Hotte and Vinnie Purpura has a 2.70 goals against average and a .908 save percentage. Each has one shutout.
Rebels Overview
The Rebels sit atop the East Division (and the NAHL for that matter) with a 16-3-0 record for 32 points. They are coming off of a 7 – 0 shutout over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Knights. The reining East Division champions have won four of their last five games; the only blemish is a 2-0 shutout to the Tomahawks. The Rebels have scored the most goals in the league with 76 and they have allowed the least amount of goals with 31.
The Rebels are led by Andrew Bellant (21 points – 12 goals and 9 assists), Dom Garcia (20 points – 5 goals and 15 assists) and Gianluca Esteves (19 points – 6 goals and 13 assists). Bellant leads the team in scoring with 12. Bellant, Garcia, Esteves and Andreas Maier each have two game winning goals.
The Rebels have the fifth best power play unit in the league possessing a 27.2% conversion ratio while they have the fourth best penalty kill unit with 84.5%. Defenseman Ryan Solomon leads the team with a +23 +/- ratio while Garcia and Gvido Jansons each have 33 penalty minutes.
Mareks Mitens leads in all league stats having a 1.14 goals against average and .950 save percentage with six shutouts.
After this weekend these two teams won’t see each other until February 10 and 11 at IceWorks.
