None were as big as his first playoff goal Friday night.

Amici scored 3:56 into a second overtime period as Jamestown beat the Johnstown Tomahawks 2-1 in Game 1 of their best-of-five first round North American Hockey League series at 1st Summit Arena at Cambria County War Memorial.

Game 2 of the series is today at 7 back in Johnstown.

Amici took control of an outlet pass near center ice and skated into the Johnstown zone before cutting across the middle and beating Tomahawks goaltender Matthew O’Donnell with a wrist shot.

Jamestown goaltender Nolan Suggs makes a save while Johnstown’s Zachary Murray (71) and Jamestown’s Luke DeVries battle in front of the net Friday. Photo courtesy of Phil Andraychak

“Kolby got a stretch pass and it was a one-on-one. The defenseman played it well, but I thought he was a little tired,” Rebels head coach Joe Coombs said late Friday. “Kolby is a little water bug, beat him to the inside, shot the puck and the defenseman stuck his stick out and deflected it. It was fluttering like a butterfly.”

The Tomahawks looked like they may have won the game at the 18:09 mark of the second overtime, but officials waved off an apparent goal when the puck was deemed to have been sent into the goal with a high stick.

“(Jamestown goaltender Nolan) Suggs said 100% it was a high stick,” Coombs said. “Overtime periods usually end early. When they (thought they) scored, I thought they might very well come right down and score again.”

The Rebels led 1-0 very early in the game. Less than a minute into the contest, Jak Vaarwerk skated down the right wing of the Rebels offense before sending a puck through the Johnstown crease. O’Donnell and his teammates had a hard time corralling the loose puck and it eventually found the stick of Lucas Klemm, who dug it out behind the net before taking it to the front of the goal and tucking it in on his backhand.

The game took an ugly turn with 4:20 remaining in the first period when Vaarwerk and Johnstown’s Cedrick Theodore were involved in a fight. Vaarwerk was the Rebels’ second-leading scorer in the regular season while Theodore registered just 12 assists for the Tomahawks.

“Jak was out for 15 minutes. That’s too long,” Coombs said. “You only have four lines to begin with. Losing a player of that magnitude is just too much.”

The score remained 1-0 until midway through the second period when the Tomahawks’ Cole Bianchin scored from Johnny Ulicny and David Wilcox.

Neither team could solve the opponent’s goaltender in the third period or a first 20-minute overtime period.

Suggs was credited with 28 saves while O’Donnell made 24.

“I thought Suggs was outstanding,” Coombs said. “We struggled to find our game until the first period of overtime. I thought we took the game over in the first period of overtime.”

The teams combined to go 0 for 6 on the power play.

Jamestown earned the East Division’s No. 3 seed in the regular season while Johnstown finished as the No. 2 seed. In Friday’s other East Division first round game, the fourth-seeded Northeast Generals beat the top-seeded New Jersey Titans 4-1 at Middletown (N.J.) Ice Arena.

After Game 2 tonight in Johnstown, Game 3 will be Thursday at 7 p.m. inside Northwest Arena. An if-necessary Game 4 would also be at Northwest Arena on Saturday, April 30, before an if-necessary Game 5 would return to Johnstown on Sunday, May 1.

“We grinded that one out. I couldn’t be happier that we did. Hopefully that’s a good lesson for our boys,” Coombs said. “Playoffs are a grind. You’re going to get tired. It was a great lesson for our team. We don’t have a single player with playoff experience. There was no better one than that one to get them acclimated.”