November 15, 2025
1st Summit Arena (Capacity: 3,517)
Johnstown, PA
Johnstown Tomahawks vs Elmira Aviators
Final Score: 4 – 3 (OT)
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Johnstown isn’t any old Rust Belt city with a declining population. It is a place with a unique landscape, historical events and plenty of landmarks. Located within a valley amongst the hills and mountains of Southwest PA, Johnstown is built around the Little Conemaugh River and the snaking Stonycreek River. The terrain means Johnstown is flood prone and there have been devastating floods here in 1977, 1936 and America’s deadliest in 1889 when an upstream dam broke. The city can be characterized as “Rust Belt” because once prospering steel and iron production dwindled as time went on. Johnstown’s population, often over 60,000 for the first half of the 20th century, now is down to just 18,000. That’s in spite of economic boosts in the form of Department of Defense contracts. One thing Johnstown does not lack is character and I enjoyed my explorations here. Among other landmarks is the Cambria County War Memorial (err, 1st Summit Arena). This historical building opened in 1950 and it will always be famous in hockey circles thanks to “Slap Shot”. That movie was filmed here and was based on the local team, the Johnstown Jets. The Jets were in town for 27 years until folding and then in 1988, the Johnstown Chiefs (nicknamed like that because of the movie) entered the AA-level ECHL. Despite never winning a championship, the Chiefs had a great run, but sadly relocated to Greenville, SC in 2010. Not having minor league hockey in Johnstown is a true shame, but we at least can be thankful that a Junior team plays in the city. The Tomahawks of the NAHL have been in Johnstown since 2012 and are on a 7-year winning season streak with a couple division titles. Taking in a game at the War Memorial is a blast from the past.
Prestige Ranking: 4 out of 5
Location
Heritage Johnstown runs the museums in the area and I started first with the Discovery Center just a few minutes away in Cambria City. This one tells the story of the Cambria Iron Company and the plight of the many immigrants that came to Johnstown. It was really well done. They also have a room full of photographs from each flood that the city has gone through. The Johnstown Flood Museum is the one that focuses on the 1889 tragedy and I spent an hour here. That’s located downtown and in the short distance across the river is the towering and very steep Yoder Hill. After the flood, they built the Inclined Plane, the steepest funicular in the world with a grade of 72%. Two carts make the journey up 500 feet and are even capable of carrying a car. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been running for years thanks to a delayed renovation. At least I was able to drive up to Westmont and take in the spectacular view of Johnstown from the top of the lookout deck adjacent to the station. Directly below that incline in the downtown area is 1st Summit Arena, sitting within a little turn in the Stonycreek River. Johnstown’s downtown core is so tightly confined that you can easily make the walk from one end where the arena is to the other end with the flood museum in just 10 minutes. In between is Main Street, with a few restaurants and Central Park in the middle. That park is usually home to a very cool Christmas tree that dances with lights and song. Back closer to the arena, on nearby Market Street, there are a couple sports bars that serve food. Scott’s by Dam is the place to go and you’ll have plenty of Tomahawk fans with you.
Location Ranking: 7.5 out of 10
Accessibility / Parking
Johnstown has the feel of “middle of nowhere” as the road networking around the mountains speaks to that. Being distanced from the Interstates 80, 76 and 99, you’ll likely need a few state roads to reach the area. Route 56 is the main way to reach the city and it connects with US-22 to the north and US-219 to the south. Johnstown is about an hour and 20 minute drive from Pittsburgh. Driving around this place wasn’t enjoyable thanks to a combination of hills, poor road quality and some odd turns. At least once you are downtown, the street grid becomes very linear and easy to navigate. Traffic is negligible. Arena parking is plentiful as street spots are attainable or one of three garages within a 7-minute walk can be used. The closest is at the Renaissance Center.
Accessibility / Parking Ranking: 7 out of 8
Exterior
The War Memorial is made up of light-colored brick, different than other buildings in the city and not common with older arenas. The main entrance is towards the end of a side facing downtown and it features three columns of windows into the lobby and some arena signs. It isn’t all that tall of an arena.
Exterior Ranking: 5 out of 10
Concourse
The aforementioned lobby has enough space and is decorated really well as a memorial to veterans. From there, the concourse that circles the area is small. Like really small. In fact, the whole arena footprint is confined, as evidenced by the fact that locker rooms are through doors at the concourse level and players go through it to reach the ice. That certainly makes for a funny visual when getting popcorn and someone has to go the locker room after a fight. The Zamboni also has to work in tight quarters as the driver makes a k-turn outside the rink to get the machine in the right position in the corner concourse. Also, watch out for the floor cleaner and dumpsters around this corner, things visibly out in the open as opposed to in a storage space (which maybe the arena doesn’t have?). The narrow concourse does circle the entire arena .
Concourse Ranking: 2 out of 5
Food
The concessions menu screen is quite snazzy and it distracted me from an otherwise generic menu. Along with Fried Pickles, the most interesting item was the Poutine. Normally reserved for Canadian arenas, they had this combination of Fries, Gravy and Cheese Curds here in Johnstown. Beer was in the form of national brands, except for IC Light, a Pittsburgh specialty.
Food Ranking: 3.5 out of 8
Interior
Seating goes around the rink with about 12-15 rows in each section. What’s nice is that the bowl is at a steep angle and that depth helps with sightlines. Because it’s a small building, you’ll see many prefer the top rows so that the boards aren’t in the way and the view is better at the other end. The bowl is more of an octagon shape and that means you don’t get a nice curve around the corners, thus seats themselves are facing straight ahead at the goal mouth. Chairs are blue and comfortable. Four suites are carved into one of the upper sides, while at floor-level is a group premium section. There are some cool elements speaking to the age of the building and the most notable is the gondola press box hanging over the side seats. It speaks again to how confined the arena is, but it’s an interesting piece, along with the stairs to get there. In fact, you can see this feature in “Slapshot”. That press box is outfitted to look like a commuter bus from CamTran and it’s one of a billion advertisements in the War Memorial. I know bills need to be paid, but this is overkill and taints the ambiance of the arena. There are stickers on the heating pipes, Toyota symbols on every stair and commercials at the start of every beam. Oh yeah, there’s also 30 (I counted) ads on the ice surface.
Interior Ranking: 7 out of 14
Scoreboard
The scoreboard is interesting because it looks like an old, four-sided, dot-matrix board. Oh contraire as that actually is a video screen spitting out that gameplay display. Of course they have to put advertisements on this, so things are a little cluttered while still being readable and findable. When it goes to video, the screen is on the smaller side and it’s hard to make things out during the few replays that are shown.
Scoreboard Ranking: 2 out of 4
Displays
Johnstown certainly has the “War Memorial” part of this building down as the amount of dedications to area veterans is more than impressive. Flags, statues, plaques and mementos can mostly be found in the opening lobby. Even as you walk into the main part of the arena, you’ll see three veterans described and honored through each concourse opening. While all of that is more important, on the Johnstown hockey side of things, the visibility of displays is lacking. This is a building with a long hockey history and it barely is acknowledged. Outside three small retired numbers way up in the rafters, that’s all you’ll see for the Chiefs. “Slapshot” memorabilia is confined to the room for group events. And then you have the Tomahawks, who have two sad display cases: one sitting completely empty and the other with a lone, unmarked puck inside.
Displays Ranking: 3 out of 6
Cost
Ticket prices aren’t bad around $13, but online fees make up almost half of that, leading to a final total of $19.10 – $22.95. I hate TicketMaster so much. I forgot to check at the box office to see if there are fees, but I would take my chances and get tickets at the building. There’s a few comparable arena sizes and teams in the East Division and these prices are a few dollars higher overall. If you can’t find free street parking, using a garage will cost $5 as it’s unnecessary to go follow a person flagging you down for a $10 lot. Concessions are thankfully cheap: $3 for a Hot Dog, $2 for Popcorn and ‘just’ $7.50 for a 16oz beer.
Cost Ranking: 6.5 out of 8
Fan Support
There is a great group of Tomahawk fans as they love their team and support their players. Many of them are wearing the colors and jerseys and there’s even a Booster Club seen in the Concourse hallways. Within the NAHL, Johnstown ranked 8th in league attendance last year and they are certainly the most supported team in the East Division. The last home playoff games featured attendance of 2,308 and 1,673. For this Saturday Night game I attended, they honored veterans which would normally bring a decent crowd, but that was likely cancelled out by two local teams playing for a High School Football District Championship. My guesstimate was maybe 1200 on hand, which is well less than half the arena capacity.
Fan Support Ranking: 4 out of 8
Atmosphere
The atmosphere was good, but I had higher expectations coming in. I thought I’d be getting that old-school hockey crowd (like Utica or Glens Falls) where fans would harass the refs, use cowbells and react to generally everything. That wasn’t quite the case in Johnstown and while yes, there were some cowbells, the noise levels in the building didn’t have that extra juice I was hoping for. It’s not a negative on the atmosphere, it just was average. It may feel a little unjust comparing this place to the Minor Leagues, when it is in fact home to Tier II Junior Hockey, but this is a minor-league arena and not a small community rink. Each goal was met with a good pop as fans clapped loudly and let out a “Yeah”. This was quickly drowned out a very loud and long-lasting goal horn. Nobody really stood when a goal was scored and as the game was tight in the 3rd period, it took the PA to egg on a “Let’s Go Hawks” chant. The fan base is knowledgeable and attentive as clearings on penalty kills were cheered, while solid plays and hustle was also rewarded with applause.
Atmosphere Ranking: 7.5 out of 14
Other Stuff
The War Memorial is a busy building during the winter as four different high schools play hockey here. Before I arrived, they also had a veterans hockey tournament the afternoon of the game. In March, Johnstown often hosts title games for basketball in PIAA’s District 6…..The NAHL is a Tier II Junior Hockey league (the USHL is Tier I) and often players are 17-20 years old. They aren’t paid and they are NCAA eligible as many will use this as a stepping stone to the college hockey level. During their time with the team, these kids usually attend school and if they aren’t local, they stay with billet families. Games are Friday Nights and Saturday Nights…..In 2015, Johnstown won the Kraft Hockeyville contest and $150,000 in arena upgrades…..When the NAHL team arrived, owners wanted a “fresh and new” approach, hence going with Tomahawks instead of keeping the Chiefs name. I’m definitely not a fan of that as I’m sure others aren’t as well given that “Chiefs” has such a history here. Plus that Tomahawks logo is terrible and it looks like something a bad 1990s computer program spit it out….A tradition in Johnstown is the New Year’s Eve game. Since 1988, they’ve played at 6 PM, often to sellout crowds…..There’s a subtle accent here as an outsider will pronounce the city as “J-ah-nstown”, while locals say “J-ohn-stown”…..A special thanks to London Graham on the visit.
Game
This was one of the best hockey games I’ve seen in a long time. The pace was fast and furious as both teams went up and down the ice with scoring chances a dime a dozen. To add to the entertainment, Elmira and Johnstown were chirping at each other all night and there plenty of scrums after whistles. The Tomahawks got on the scoresheet first, scoring just 37 seconds into the game. It was 3-0 early in the 2nd period and with the shot count already in the 20s on both sides, you could tell Elmira wasn’t out of it despite being halfway through the game. They would get two back before the next intermission and before they headed into the locker room, there was a random goalie fight after a scrum. That’s a first for me. It was also dumb, because both starters got misconducts in a close game and the backups were in for the 3rd. Just 51 seconds in, Andrew Horn tied it up. As the 3rd period went on, play tightened up and we went to overtime. That’s where Nick Jarmain finished a 2-on-1 as his 15th of the season was a game winner and a celebratory pile-up along the boards ensued. Fantastic game.
Stadium and Arena Visits 
