The Maine Nordiques fought back and earned a point in a 5-4 shootout loss to the Johnstown Tomahawks in an NAHL East Division contest at the 1st Summit Arena in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Friday night.
Maine Nordiques coach Nick Skerlick said the team’s top players came to play.
“I was proud of the top guys and the resiliency was awesome,” Skerlick said. “Every time we went down, we came back. We went down two, we came back and when it was 4-3, we came back. It was really good from our leadership — I thought David Helledy and Charles Tardif…I thought those two guys led the charge and I was really happy with Jake Bernadet and Kellen Murphy. Those guys worked really hard. It’s unfortunate they don’t get the win tonight and it’s unfortunate Thomas Heaney doesn’t get the win.”
Down 4-3 with under six minutes to play in the third period, Tardif forced overtime with 60 seconds remaining on the power play. Nils Forselius had the only assist.
After a scoreless overtime session, Hayes Hundley had the lone goal in the shootout to give the Tomahawks (21-14-2, 44 points) the victory.
Former Maine Nordiques player Alexey Yarmulnik put the Tomahawks up 1-0 in the first period.
Jake Bernadet answered for Maine (27-9-5, 59 points) early in the middle frame on the power play.
Hundley and Zach Aben scored 22 seconds apart later in the second, giving Johnstown a 3-1 advantage.
Skerlick said the Nordiques clamped down after the two goals.
“From that point on, the last 23 minutes of the hockey game was the strongest we played tonight that was more than six minutes,” Skerlick said. “We had some six-minute spurts in the first and early in the second, but when that happened, we had 23 minutes, 46 seconds of really good play.”
Helledy scored late in the period when his shot beat Tomahawks goalie Jacob Osborne (38 saves) on the man advantage.
Helledy scored again midway through the third period to tie the game.
Skerlick said Helledy will be named an assistant captain next week.
Justin Rapp scored with under six minutes remaining in the third period when the puck got behind Heaney (31 saves) to give the Tomahawks a 4-3 lead.
Evan Orloff and Laurent Trepanier also had assists for the Nordiques.
The teams meet again Saturday in Johnstown at 7 p.m.
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