First-year Johnstown Tomahawks coach Jared Kersner would prefer to play a home game in the opening round of the North American Hockey League playoffs.
But the postseason format is beyond Kersner’s control. Plus, the Tomahawks have a solid 17-11-2 road record entering a three-game series against the New Jersey Titans Friday through Sunday, if necessary, at Middletown Ice World Arena.
“We play well on the road,” said Kersner, whose team went 3-2-1 against the Titans in six regular-season games. “I don’t know if it’s an advantage, but it’s certainly not a disadvantage.”
Game 1 Friday begins at 7:30 p.m., with Game 2 at 6 p.m. Saturday and Game 3, if necessary, at 5:30 p.m. Sunday.
Fifth-place Johnstown (31-23-5) is coming off a split of two home games against the second-place Maryland Black Bears to close the regular season. The weekend prior, the Tomahawks swept the first-place Rochester Jr. Americans on the road.
Fourth-place New Jersey (32-20-7) swept a two-game set against the visiting Tomahawks March 21-22. Kersner was in the midst of serving a team implemented 10-day suspension during those losses.
“We’ve just got to play extremely hard and play a team game,” Kersner said. “We have to try to manage our matchups the best we can against Jack Hillier and those guys.
“We’ve proven we can win on the road, especially recently, going to (first-place) Rochester and getting two wins.”
As the higher seed, New Jersey will host all three games, if necessary, in the best-of-3 series.
Sixth-seeded New Hampshire visits third-seeded Maine in another best-of-3 series. Rochester and Maryland earned first-round byes as the division’s top seeds.
“I expect a great series,” Kersner said. “We split the regular-season games, and they were close games.”
New Jersey had four 20-goal scorers among its top-six point leaders. Forward Jack Hillier ranked fifth in the league with 70 points, including 18 goals.
Alex Papaspyropoulas (25-38-63), Ryan Friedman (17-33-50), Owen Leahy (22-23-45) and Ryan Novo (24-20-44) provide the Titans with plenty of offensive pop.
“We have to make sure we execute on special teams,” Kersner said. “They have the No. 2 power play in the league. They are led by Hillier and Papaspyropoulas. We have to make sure to apply as much pressure as possible.”
The Titans’ power play finished second among 35 NAHL teams by clicking at 23.7% (56 of 236). Johnstown’s penalty kill ranks 19th (.818).
New Jersey is 23rd on the penalty kill (.811), and Johnstown ranked 17th on the power play (17.7%).
The Tomahawks struggled early in the season, but picked up the pace in the second half, going 15-6-2 and earning 32 of a possible 46 points in the East Division since Jan. 18.
“What an incredible run we had there,” Kersner said. “I said earlier in the year that after Christmas, we’re going to be a team that’s going to be hard to beat. It’s just the guys getting better individually and getting better as a team.
“I couldn’t be prouder of what the players have accomplished and what we as a staff have accomplished.
“We put in the work.”
The Tomahawks are led by Adam Ondris (24-19-43), Cullen Emery (18-21-39), Sam Blanton (13-24-37), Caden Olenczak (6-30-36) and Charlie Zetterkvist (17-16-33).
Forward Nick White has been the most productive points man against New Jersey, scoring at least a point in five of the six regular-season meetings.
White has five goals and eight points against the Titans this season.
“Nick White has been incredible all season long,” Kersner said.
“We don’t have a 70-point getter like Jack Hillier. We have a balanced attack. Guys are all bunched up from 40 points and down. We play well as a team. When we need a goal, we don’t know who it’s going to come from, but we know we can trust ...
