Lewiston has the knack for beating Drummondville on the last shot of the game.

Alexandre Picard completed a hat trick 39 seconds into overtime to lift the Maineiacs to a 3-2 victory over the Voltigeurs in front of 1,974 at the Marcel Dionne Center in Drummondville, Quebec.

The win is Lewiston’s first of the new year and gives the team 36 points, vaulting it into 10th place overall in the league, ahead of Quebec and Baie-Comeau.

“These were two big points for us,” Maineiacs coach Ed Harding said by phone. “I’m not so happy about giving them a point, but it’s two points and it moves us ahead of Quebec, so we’ll take it.”

Picard’s goal came early in overtime, and had as much fanfare surrounding it as Lewiston’s final goal against Drummondville when the Voltigeurs last visited Maine. In that game, Sheldon Wenzel knocked the puck in off of Mathieu Aubin’s stick with three-tenths of a second left for the win.

“Picard’s goal was nice,” said Harding. “Alex Bourret made a nice play to keep the puck in at the blue line, saw Picard along in front of the net and got it to him. Picard just tipped it by the goalie for the hat trick.”

Lewiston held a 2-0 lead after two periods, thanks to two earlier goals by Picard. His second came on the power play with 16 seconds left in the second period and seemed to demoralize the Voltigeurs.

“After playing a horrible first period, where we were running around in our own end a lot, we came out fired up in the second,” said Harding. “That was important for us.”

But, as has been its wont all season, Lewiston allowed Drummondville back into the game.

Louis-Phillippe Martin pulled the Voltigeurs within one at 4:45 of the third, slipping the puck past Matt Davis.

At 12:44, Kevin Mailhiot knotted the score. Neither team converted on several opportunities the rest of the way, forcing overtime.

“I think we’ve had something like seven two-goal leads in a row, and we’ve lost a lot of them,” said Harding. “I don’t like to see that in teams. That just means we have some maturing to do as a team.”

Lewiston returns home this week to start a five-game home stand against Rimouski on Thursday and Friday.

“Those games against Rimouski are very important,” said Harding. “They should be interesting.”

[email protected]