The Maine Nordiques couldn’t win the third period in a 6-4 loss to the Johnstown Tomahawks in front of 1,175 fans at the 1st Summit Arena at Cambria County War Memorial in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, on Friday night.
The Tomahawks (11-12-2, 24 points) are three points back of the Nordiques (13-9-1, 27 points) for fourth place in the NAHL East Division.
The fourth-place team holds the final playoff position in the East Division.
“It always has to be (a playoff atmosphere) because that’s what it will take to win a championship,” Maine Nordiques coach Matt Pinchevsky said. “A winning mentality, making sure we are checking all the boxes and staying focused on the championship one game at a time, that’s going to be the most important thing in our mentality. If teams don’t push back and don’t dish out adversity, how do we win a championship? We won’t get better and we won’t grow. (Johnstown) helped us big time tonight and we will help us out tomorrow.”
The game entered the third period 2-2 but Zachary Aben potted his ninth goal of the season, giving the Tomahawks a 3-2 lead. Former Maine Nordiques Academy player Ryan Panico notched one of the two assists.
Brendan Gibbons responded for the Nordiques with his ninth goal of the season about five minutes into the third period.
Nick Ahern scored a power-play goal near the midway point of the third period to put Johnstown back on top.
Maine responded as Henrik Hallberg scored on the man-advantage. Defenseman Nicholas Bernardo and forward Jackson Foddrill provided the assists.
David Matousek scored the game-winning goal when he got the puck past Nordiques goalie Thomas Heaney (28 saves).
Pinchevsky said Heaney played well to keep the Nordiques in the contest.
Aben added an insurance marker with five seconds remaining in the game.
The Nordiques played a solid opening 20 minutes, jumping out to a 2-0 lead. Laurent Trepanier scored early in the period and Bernardo doubled the lead in the final minute of the stanza.
The Nordiques created plays to gain an early advantage.
“Offense is always going to come down to taking action and executing on that action,” Pinchevsky added. “So that’s where the lead came from. And not allowing any goals through situational play on the (penalty kill) and 5-on-5, that had everything to do with making the choice of playing sound defense.”
Johnstown evened the game 2-2 in the final five minutes of the second period, with Will Moore and Ryan Vellucci scoring.
Panico recorded his first assist of the game on Moore’s goal and Vellucci’s goal was a power-play goal.
Johnstown went 2 of 6 on the power play and the Nordiques were 2 of 5.
Adam Johnson stopped 29 shots for Johnstown.
After winning Thursday’s game 5-2, the Nordiques look for the weekend series win Saturday night at 7 p.m. in Johnstown.
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