Published: January 28, 2009 11:32 pm      

Getting physical

Johnstown muscles its way past Mississippi

Ian Herbers wanted traffic in front of the net.

The Johnstown Chiefs coach stressed the importance of his team utilizing its speed.

Forget the fancy stuff. Get physical.

Herbers got his wish in the Chiefs’ 3-1 victory over the visiting Mississippi Sea Wolves Wednesday night in front of an announced crowd of 2,039.

The Chiefs controlled the tempo, created opportunities and got back on the winning track after a series of near-misses that led to a 2-7 January record prior to Wednesday.

“Every game is important, division or non-division,” said Herbers after the Chiefs won the franchise’s first-ever meeting with the Sea Wolves. “The race is tight here, and it’s tight for them down South.”

The Chiefs (24-16-2) and Sea Wolves (16-21-4) have a rematch on Friday at the War Memorial.

Chiefs right wing Petr Pohl factored in all three goals, scoring twice and assisting on Todd Griffith’s first-period tally.

The newly matched line of Pohl, Griffith and Blair Yaworski combined for eight shots and each player rated a plus-3.

“They played with some energy,” Herbers said. “It started in the first period with Griffith finally playing as a power forward instead of a dangling forward who tries to beat guys with moves. He needs to use his size, strength and speed. It worked tonight. He created some space.”

Kris Mayotte made 23 saves in his 16th victory.

The Chiefs struck first as Griffith gathered the puck in the defensive zone and outraced the defense on the left-wing side. Pohl trailed the play, then took a centering pass from Griffith in the slot. Pohl deflected the disc into an open net at 3:44 of the first.

“The first goal, Griffith worked really hard through the boards and got us into a 2-on-1,” Pohl said. “He basically just hit my skate while I was skating and it went in.”

Another rush led to Griffith’s goal at 10:48 of the first. Defenseman David Schulz chipped the puck to Pohl, who had open ice on the right side. He centered to Griffith, who roofed a shot past Ryan Munce for his first goal since joining the Chiefs.

“It was another 2-on-1,” Pohl said. “He was open. It was easy for me to pass the puck.”

Yaworski’s apparent power-play goal was waved off with 5:12 left in the first because a player was ruled in the crease.

That loomed large after Mississippi’s Kyle Peto’s blast from the right point gave the Sea Wolves a 5-on-3 power-play goal at 15:28 of the second.

“We laid off the gas pedal,” Herbers said. “We need to start getting that killer

instinct again where if we’re up we want to keep going after teams and keep pouring it on instead of letting them get back in games.”

Pohl provided insurance with an empty-net goal at 19:07 of the third. He forechecked a Sea Wolves defender behind the net and got to the loose puck in time for a nearly uncontested wrap-around.

“At first I was going to forecheck the guy hard because I didn’t want him to put the play back in our zone right away,” Pohl said. “Then I saw he was hesitating and I went hard after him. I got a little lucky and it went in.”