Val d'Or drills Lewiston

Ron Morin photo Boston Bruins draft pick and current Val d'Or center Maxime Sauve scores a first period goal.

Ron Morin photo Lewiston Maineiacs' Riku Dufva clears a puck past Matthieu Theriault of Val d'Or in second period action in Lewiston.

Ron Morin photo Val d'Or Foreurs goaltender Raffaele D'Orso gets the pads on a shot by Pierre-Olivier Morin of the Lewiston Maineiacs on Friday at the Colisee.

LEWISTON — When Michael Chaput took the handoff from Etienne Brodeur at the right circle, shimmied to the middle and roofed the puck over Rafaele D'Orso's left shoulder, the resulting goal hardly mattered, save for the bit of pride that stemmed from ending the Val d'Or keeper's shutout bid.

The Foreurs had made plenty sure that one Lewiston goal, even in the seond period, wasn't going to mean much on this night.

Boston Bruins' prospect Maxime Sauve netted a pair of goals and added an assist and Jonathan Hazen added a goal and a pair of helpers to lead Val d'Or to a 7-1 win over the Maineiacs in front of 1,788 at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee on Friday.

"We told the team this was going to be the best six-and-eleven team they were going to face," Lewiston coach Don MacAdam said. "We told the boys not to take them lightly. I don;t know if they did that or not, but we're really disappointed with how we played. We never got anything going at any time."

D'Orso, the Foreurs' overage goalie playing in just his second game of the season due to an injury, stopped 40 of the 41 shots he faced, allowing only the goal to Chaput in his return to action.

"Rafaele is solid, he's just a solid player," Val d'Or coach Marc-Andre Dumont said. "The Maineiacs played well in some parts of the game, and he had to make some key saves."

Val d'Or's power play, ranked fifth in the league going into Friday's contest, connected on its first three official attempts with a man advantage and added a fourth on a delayed call as the Foreurs jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the game's first 37 minutes.

"The guys are playing with confidence now," Dumont said. "When you have guys like (Marco) Scandella and Simon Lacroix at the point and Max Sauve, Sam Morneau and Hazen, all of them playing with confidence, we try to take advantage of that."

The rest of the Foreurs' goals exposed a sluggish Lewiston defense that had trouble staying on top of the Val d'Or forecheck all night.

"Our defense was backing in and the goalies didn't make the saves," MacAdam said. "The defense was playing off their man all night, and at the same time, on the other end, we weren't putting any pucks in the net, either."

Lewiston has now allowed 25 goals in its last four games, while scoring just five, and has dropped to 8-8-0-0 on the season.

"We're in a bit of a slide right now, and we need a major regroup," MacAdam said. "Our bangers need to start being our bangers again, our scorers need to score."

In a swift-moving yet uninspired first period, Val d'Or took advantage of a pair of penalty calls against Lewiston to build a 2-0 lead.

The Foreurs nearly had one early as Jonathan Hazen broke in alone on Lewiston goalie Adrien Lemay, but the 20-year-old keeper got plenty of pad on the puck to keep it from crossing the line. It wasn't long before they'd make good on another solid scoring chance.

Lacroix, who had a career-high four points in a game Wednesday against Victoriaville, got things rolling for the Foreurs at 6:42 of the opening frame, unleashing a slapper from the right point through traffic that reached the net behind Lemay's outstretched right pad unimpeded.

Sauve netted his 11th of the season at 18:05. He tipped the puck past Lemay on a feed from the right corner by Shawn Morton-Boutin on a delayed penalty call to a Lewiston skater.

On the other end, D'Orso was solid if not spectacular. He was truly tested just once on a one-timer in front, and made the left-pad save look easy.

The floodgates opened up in the second period. Hazen made it 3-0 at 4:50 on another power play, Samuel Morneau tacked on the team's fourth at 8:18, and Keven Guerette-Charland netted his ninth of the season 12 seconds later as the deluge continued. Guerette-Charland's tally drove Lemay from the cage.

Jordan Kennedy hardly fared much better.

The Maineiacs' 16-year-old backup allowed a pair of goals on the first six shots he saw, including another by Sauve on a rush up the left side and another on the power play.

Chaput broke up D'Orso's shutout with 2:09 to play in the middle period, roofing the puck over the 20-year-old keeper's shoulder on a nice give-and-go with Etienne Brodeur. The Maineiacs finished out the period with some energy, but the damage done was already too great.

Lemay returned to the net in the third period for Lewiston, and neither team scored again.

The same two teams will square off at the Colisee again Saturday night at 7 p.m.