The Nordiques scored the first two, but it was the Rebels who scored the most important one — the last one.

With a little more than 10 seconds left in the overtime period, Jamestown’s Reid Lune curled up ice in his own zone for one last chance.

Lune saw Jak Vaarwerk streaking past the last Nordiques defender in the neutral zone and rifled a two-line pass right on the tape. Vaarwerk darted towards the net, faked forehand, then went backhand to slide the puck between the wickets to give the Rebels the 3-2 victory.

Jamestown’s night started just how it ended, with a little action in front of the Maine net. In the game’s opening minute, the Rebels found the back of the net as John Lundy connected with Ethan Janda in front of the net, Janda then shoveled the puck past a sprawling Avery Sturtz for his first goal as a Rebel.

Jamestown’s Conor Sedlak possesses the puck during Friday’s North American Hockey League East Division game against the Maine Nordiques at Northwest Arena. P-J photo by Christian Storms

“They had scored the first goal, they had a little bit of jump,” Jamestown Rebels head coach Joe Coombs said about the Lundy-Janda-Max Hamstad line. “They were the one line that I thought was possessing the puck for an extended time in the offensive zone. He (Lundy) had some chances. A couple times he passed it where I thought he could have shot it.”

Maine pushed back after the opening strike by the Rebels, attempting a few backdoor passes that missed the mark.

Later in the first, the Rebels struck again in transition, this time sparked by the speed of Kolby Amici. Amici received a pass from Owen West in the neutral zone and entered the zone driving toward the left wing. Right as Amici saw the opening past the Maine defender, he fired a quick wrister on net that was bobbled and Lune managed to slap home the rebound for the 2-0 lead.

After the second goal, the Rebels offense went dormant. The Nordiques increased possession led to more chances, but none were good enough to get past Nolan Suggs in net, until the final 10 seconds.

With 10 seconds left, Maine’s Patrick Schmiedlin made his way down the wall and tried the backdoor pass to Brendan Gibbons. The first few backdoor plays had missed the mark, but this time Schmiedlin had the right amount of sauce to hit Gibbons on the tape for a one-timer behind Suggs.

The late goal shifted the momentum the way of the Nordiques for the remainder of the game. If not for the stellar play of Suggs, Maine surely would have won the game as he stopped 45 of 47 shots. In the second period, Suggs made 16 saves and in the third he stopped 17 of 18 shots, just missing the last one.

“He played really well,” Coombs said about Suggs’ performance.

As the third period wound down, it looked like Suggs was going to close the door. He had made some big saves and was bailed out by the posts a few times. Just when it looked like the Rebels had the win, Maine capitalized on the first Suggs’ mistake.

“You can’t just sit there and defend for 20 minutes,” Coombs said. “It’s not how the game’s played. That’s what they decide to do, it’s not what they’re being asked to do. We’ve tried to address it, details matter and that’s something this group is having a really hard time catching up to.”

Maine’s Theo Thrun drove towards the net along the goal line and tried to slam home the puck. It appeared Suggs found it, but the puck had squirted loose and Aidan Connolly slammed it home to tie the game at 2-2 with 9.9 seconds left.

“I thought they played a really good hockey game,” Coombs said of the Nordiques. “Quite honestly, probably deserved a little bit better fate. They didn’t get one.”

Jamestown brought its best in the overtime period after being outplayed the previous two and a half periods. The Rebels had two very good opportunities, one from Lundy and another from Vaarwerk. Lundy, who had been creating Jamestown’s best chances all night, got the first one as he dazzled across the front of net, just missing as he looked for the pass instead of shot. Vaarwerk had the best look, earning a breakaway with his speed and beating Sturtz to give the Rebels an important two points in the standings.

The Rebels host the Nordiques again tonight at 7:05.