Published: October 20, 2009 11:39 pm      

Chiefs chase first victory tonight against 0-2 Trenton

It’s too early to label tonight as a must-win situation for either the Johnstown Chiefs or Trenton Devils.

But when the teams meet at 7 p.m. at Sovereign Bank Arena, each will be trying to erase the sting of a disappointing first weekend.

In this case, Trenton might be a bit more desperate than the Chiefs as the Devils dropped two home games against Kalamazoo by a combined 9-2 score. Tonight is the final leg of a three-game homestand to open the Devils’ season. The Chiefs by comparison were blanked 2-0 by Cincinnati on Saturday, their only game to date.

“Obviously there is a certain sense of urgency,” Trenton coach Rick Kowalsky said in a telephone interview. “We didn’t get off to the start that we wanted to. We played well at times this weekend but we never could get going. That’s a credit to Kalamazoo. This was only two games. It’s still early in the season. Our biggest concern is playing 60 minutes of hockey, which we haven’t done.”

The Chiefs had some positive moments in Saturday’s loss, but too often Johnstown’s players appeared to be out of sync on offense and made a few costly defensive mistakes. The power play went 0-for-8 and allowed two short-handed goals by the Cyclones.

“We’ve just been tweaking,” said first-year Chiefs coach Jeff Flanagan. “We’ve worked on our power play the last few days. The guys have been working hard on that and we feel it’s coming together pretty well. We’ve tweaked our defensive zone. We’ve been concentrating mainly on guys’ shot selection. Shoot more and be selective about when they shoot and where they shoot from.”

Flanagan expects the Devils to be a formidable opponent, especially after the 0-2 home start.

“Their top line looks like they’ve got a lot of point guys,” Flanagan said. “They’ve got a couple guys on the tougher side with over a hundred penalty minutes last year. I know the coaches do a good job. They’re going to be hungry as well because they got out to a little bit of a slow start in their first two games.”

Chiefs forward Sean Berkstresser was put on the three-day injured reserve, and forward Mark O’Leary was activated from the IR.

O’Leary played on three ECHL teams last season, including 10 games with the Devils (four assists, 11 penalty minutes).

The 5-foot-10 left wing also played for Reading (six penalty minutes, five games) and Phoenix (10 goals, 15 points, 41 PIM, 39 games).

The Devils added forward Kory Nagy from the AHL’s Lowell Devils. Nagy was the New Jersey Devils’ fifth-round draft pick in 2008.

Flanagan said Pittsburgh native Kris Mayotte will start his second game of the season tonight. Mayotte started the Chiefs final six games last season and will make his eighth straight start.

“With three games in four days we’ll see how Kris feels. Shane (goaltender Connelly) will see a game pretty soon,” said Flanagan, whose team travels to Elmira on Friday before hosting the Jackals on Saturday.

Trenton’s Kowalsky is quite familiar with Mayotte, a 20-game winner last season who started in the ECHL All-Star Game.

Mayotte won his first three starts of the season against the Devils, though Trenton rebounded with wins in Mayotte’s final four games against the New Jersey team.

“He just found a way to get it done,” said Kowalsky, the ECHL Coach of the Year last season. “There were games against us where he just made saves and sometimes you weren’t sure how he did it. It wasn’t technically perfect but he found a way to get it done. I like their ‘D’ corps. They’ve got a lot of returning guys. They did a good job in front of him. They let him see the puck and he didn’t have to make many second and third saves.”

Tonight is the first of seven road games the Chiefs will play in the next three weeks.

“We’re in a good position for that right now,” Flanagan said. “We’ve got lots of bodies. If guys get tired or we feel we need to make a change we should be able to do that. I don’t mind playing more on the road especially early on because it gives guys on the bus time to get to know each other better. There is a team bonding. On the road guys are thrown into the fire quickly. You have to step up because you’re in hostile environments in opposing arenas. It helps to bring the team together.”