The Johnstown Tomahawks had a third period outburst as they scored four unanswered goals in a 5-2 victory over the Maine Nordiques in North American Hockey action at the Cambria County War Memorial in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

It was the Nordiques’ first loss of the season after starting the season 3-0.

The Tomahawks capitalized on opportunities the Nordiques gave them.

“Our puck management wasn’t as sharp today, certainly too many turnovers, some were forced by Johnstown, they are a good hockey team,” Maine Nordiques coach Nolan Howe said. “But some unforced errors that we are going to look at and work to get better at. Overall, we competed hard.”

The third period started well for the Nordiques as Resse Farrell stretched his goal scoring streak to four games. The Auburn native gave Maine a 2-1 lead just before the two-minute mark of the third period with Sacred Heart commit Aidan Connelly picking up the assist.

A line change led to the goal.

“It was really an opportunistic play, as I told Reese, it was the best five second shift he has ever had,” Howe said. “Isaiah Fox made a great line change, we were able to put the puck in a dangerous area. If you give Reese a 1-on-1 opportunity with a goaltender, he’s going to finish more often than not. He kept his goal streak alive, but it an all around team goal.”

Andrew Murphy tied the game for the Tomahawks at two. Holt Oliphant put Johnstown up for good in the middle of the third period for a 3-2 lead with Anthony Mastromonica and Brendan Clark picking up the assists.

Clark added an insurance goal with under three minutes to play and Max Neil capped off the scoring in the final minute with an empty net goal.

Stefan Owens, who scored the game-winning shootout goal Friday night, put the Nordiques on the board first Saturday night 80 seconds into the game with Isaiah Fox and Tyler Gaulin setting the goal up.

Johnstown’s Alex Gritz scored the lone goal of the second period to tie the game up at 1-1.

Both teams were scoreless on the power play.

Howe went with the hot hand in goal with Tyriq Outen making the start after stopping 49 shots Friday night. On Saturday, he turned aside 31 shots in the loss. Connor Strobel made 25 saves to earn the win for the Tomahawks.

“We have a lot of faith in both of our goalies, but we wanted to see how Ty handled a back-to-back,” Howe said. “I thought he gave us a chance to win for sure, but it was an opportunity for us, we are playing three games next weekend and both Outen (and Avery Sturtz) are going to get work.”

The Nordiques host the New Jersey Titans for a three-game set Friday thru Sunday at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee.

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