JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – Through the first 35-plus minutes of Friday’s game at 1st Summit Arena @ Cambria County War Memorial, the Johnstown Tomahawks seemingly had a strong grip on the contest’s momentum and the Elmira Aviators as they held a three-goal lead, pairing two goals within a 53-second span to bolster that advantage.

Elmira answered thrice to draw even and kept stacking replies in the third, netting six of the game’s final seven goals as it pulled out a 6-4 win.

“I thought we had really good energy tonight for the first 35 minutes,” Tomahawks coach Adam Houli said. “Then a tricky bounce gives them momentum and then we can’t get out of in the last six minutes of the (second) period.”

The loss, paired with Danbury’s shootout win against New Hampshire, keeps the Tomahawks in seventh place in the NAHL’s East Division with 43 points. Elmira, in ninth place, sits three points back of Johnstown. The two teams meet again at 7 p.m. Saturday.

“We’ve got to let it go,” Houli said. “The way the standings are, we can’t dwell on it. We can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We have to adjust, and we have to find a way to get two points as a must, and that’s just it.”

Johnstown struck first at 6:10 of the opening period when Nick Jarmain swept in a rebound for his 25th of the season after Sean Morgan’s boomer from the slot clattered off Aiden McKenna’s pads. The Tomahawks scoring sequence began when Emerson Marshall fed Morgan with a tape-to-tape pass from the dasher to the high slot.

Johnstown clustered a pair of goals within 53 seconds to go up 3-0. The first marker came on the power-play as Jack Sullivan beat McKenna by skating in from the goaltender’s left side before sending a corner-bound shot toward the goal with assists credited to Ethan Rosenoff and Jarmain.

Kirby Perler followed at 14:19 of the second with Jarmain and Nick Metelkin helping to set up the tally.

Everything seemed to be coming up Johnstown.

Elmira disagreed.

The Aviators chipped back 18 seconds after the Perler goal when Ben Taylor – in his debut with Elmira – scored with an assist from Evan Dantas.

Dantas also helped on Matthew Maglio’s man-advantage strike at 19:16 of the middle period, 10 seconds before the game-tying goal came as a shot from the point deflected off a Tomahawks defender and right to the stick of Corson Maguire, who fired the puck past Zack Ferris.

“I think in general, we took our foot off the gas,” Houli said.

“We put that third one in, and all of a sudden, we’re a little more loose on the bench. We’re a little less engaged in our Xs and Os, and before we know it, it’s 3-3.”

Jake Baratta gave the Aviators the lead at 4:39 of the third when he snagged a loose puck in the defensive zone before leading a shorthanded breakaway that ended when his initial shot popped off of Ferris and bounced over the goal line.

Charlie Zetterkvist provided the Johnstown response when he took a feed from Rosenoff on the left of the crease before snapping a close-range shot that beat McKenna.

Kevin Delaney’s snipe from the left face-off circle pushed Elmira ahead 5-4 at 10:29 of the third. Dantas capped the night at the 18:11 mark with the Aviators on the power-play.

Luke Rubin and Maglio were listed with assists.

“Just a poor play along the wall,” Houli said. “(Delaney) ripped it and it just kind of took everything out from us. I think if we get another minute or two of tie gameplay, I think we can figure it out in that period. I think we’d get the next one off of that, but we didn’t.”

McKenna turned away 27 Johnstown shots, while Ferris made 23 saves.

Shawn Curtis is a reporter for The Tribune-Democrat. He can be reached at 814-532-5085. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnCurtis430.