Johnstown’s Braedon Ford filled the role Thursday night, putting his Tomahawks one win away from advancing to the North American Hockey League East Division finals.

Ford was the beneficiary of a fortunate bounce off the back wall and beat Jamestown goaltender Nolan Suggs with 36 seconds left in overtime as Johnstown beat the Rebels 5-4 in Game 3 of their semifinal series at Northwest Arena.

“I felt from the get-go this could go five games,” Jamestown head coach Joe Coombs said.

Game 4 of the best-of-five series is set for 7 p.m. Saturday at Northwest Arena. If the Rebels manage to force a deciding Game 5, it would be at 6 p.m. Sunday at 1st Summit Arena at Cambria County War Memorial in Johnstown.

Jamestown’s Joshua Burke follows through on a goal during the second period of Thursday’s playoff game. P-J photo by Scott Reagle

“This is the one time of the year that hockey needs to be about the teams. Playoff hockey is about momentum and feeling good about what you are doing. If you play Friday-Saturday and you are on top of the world, you can’t keep that feeling for a week,” Coombs said. “You need to play every other day. Our energy will be fine on a back-to-back, but that third game, with travel, you are grasping at straws.”

Jamestown iced the puck with 42 seconds remaining in the extra session Thursday setting up a faceoff to the right of Suggs. Ford won the faceoff to Jake Black, who sent the puck to Tyler DesRochers at the right point.

The defenseman’s shot missed the Jamestown net by several feet, but caromed perfectly to Ford waiting just inside the faceoff circle and he wristed a shot past a scrambling Suggs to put the game away.

“They run that faceoff all the time. It’s something that we practice,” Coombs said. “I think (Ford) never really left. They ran the play, the puck missed the net by 4 or 5 feet and it goes in our net. We got a break in Game 1 and they got one in Game 2.”

Jamestown opened the scoring just over three minutes into the game when Mitch Lafay sent a relatively harmless shot toward the Johnstown net that was mishandled by goaltender Matthew O’Donnell. The Rebels’ Ethan Janda pounced on the rebound and his second whack at the puck sent it into the back of the net for a 1-0 lead.

“Lafay’s line needed to respond after the night they had last Saturday,” Coombs said. “I felt they did.”

The score remained 1-0 until the third minute of the second period when Jak Vaarwerk kicked off a wild 15 minutes with his second goal of the series. Jamestown had 55 seconds of 5-on-3 power-play time and didn’t score, but the Tomahawks tried to send Frank Jenkins across the ice for a change coming out of the penalty box instead of back into their defensive zone and the Rebels made them pay when captain John Lundy slid a no-look pass to Vaarwerk staring at an open net.

“Our special teams were better,” Coombs said. “They needed to respond.”

The two-goal lead didn’t last long as Johnny Ulicny gained the Jamestown zone and dropped a pass to Zachary Murray, who found a streaking Cole Bianchin going toward the net just 18 seconds later to make it 2-1.

Jamestown pushed its lead back up to two just over a minute later as Ryan Waltman and Vaarwerk assisted on Joshua Burke’s goal through a screen in front of O’Donnell to make it 3-1.

“We got one early and then we got another one,” Coombs said. “They got one quickly and we scored another one, which I thought was huge.”

Again, the two-goal advantage didn’t last. Less than a minute later, Jacob Badal capitalized on a bad giveaway by the Rebels and beat Suggs clean with a wrist shot to pull the Tomahawks within a goal.

Johnstown tied the game on a 5-on-3 advantage just over nine minutes into the period as Black — the NAHL’s leading goal scorer in the regular season — tallied his second of the postseason on his own rebound after receiving the puck alone to the right of Suggs.

“With all of the penalties against them … they gave them a 5-on-3,” Coombs said, “and you knew the minute they gave them a 5-on-3 they were going to get one against us.”

Jamestown scored a shorthanded goal after a short stretch of 4-on-4 play with 2:29 left in the second period. Vaarwerk sent Ryan Waltman in alone and he beat O’Donnell to make it 4-3.

“It’s a tie hockey game and then we get another huge goal shorthanded,” Coombs said.

But again, the Tomahawks answered before the period was over when Black found an open Badal for his second goal of the postseason.

“We have to give our other nine forwards a break,” Coombs said. “You put out a line and you tell them to understand who they are playing against and to understand their responsibilities, then boom.”

Jamestown’s Conor Sedlak played what was likely his most effective game of the series and had chances in close in both the third period and overtime, but was unable to beat O’Donnell.

“I was really happy with Conor Sedlak tonight,” Coombs said. “I would have picked him to end it for us. He was around the net a little bit and he almost ended it a couple of times.”

The teams nearly got to their second double-overtime game of the series, but Suggs — who made 37 saves on the night — was unable to stop Ford in the final minute.

“This is our first taste of playoff hockey as a group,” Coombs said. “Crazy things happen in the playoffs.”