Gabriel Balasescu deposits a pair of key goals in the third period.
By Justin Pelletier
Staff Writer

LEWISTON – They had to win this game.

Everyone on the bench knew it, the coach knew it, and the fans knew it.

With the score knotted at two early in the third period, Gabriel Balasescu made Victoriaville aware of it, too.

Balasescu scored two goals less than four minutes apart midway through the third period. Mathieu Aubin netted the eventual game-winner two minutes later to lead the Lewiston Maineiacs to a 5-4 win over the Victoriaville Tigres in front of 2,411 fans at the Central Maine Civic Center Friday night.

“We really needed a win, with the standings so tight,” Balasescu said. “We are on a streak right now, and we want that to keep going.”

The Maineiacs have now won five straight, and seven of their last nine games, moving closer to Rimouski and Chicoutimi in the Eastern Division standings. Rimouski lost Friday, 6-5, to P.E.I, while Chicoutimi defeated Halifax. Lewiston trails the Oceanic by eight points with three games in hand, and it trails the Sagueneens by five with two games in hand.

Balasescu’s first goal of the night at 8:44 of the third period broke a 2-2 tie and came on the heels of a 5-on-3 penalty kill.

“That PK turned things around in the game for us, I think,” Maineiacs coach Mario Durocher said. “After that, for a while, the team played very well.”

“That goal was after we worked it hard in the corner,” Balasescu said. “(Alexandre) Picard got the puck out to (Vladislav) Balaz, and he shot. I put the rebound high over the goalie’s shoulder.”

Less than four minutes later, at 12:12, Balasescu stayed in front of the net as Victoriaville tried to clear the puck. Bobby Gates got a hand on it, played the puck to his stick and fired a quick slap shot at Tigres’ goalie Josh Tordjman. Tordjman gave up a characteristic rebound, right to Balasescu. All alone, he pivoted to his right and stuffed the puck into the net.

It appeared that the game was well in hand after Aubin notched his 11th of the season at 14:03, but Victoriaville was not done knocking at the door.

“You take away that middle of that period, when we got lazy, this is a much different game,” Victoriaville coach Judes Vallee. “We got lazy, and against Lewiston you can’t do that.”

The Tigres clawed their back to 5-3 at 15:52, when Kyle Doucet scored his second of the game, tipping a shot in off of netminder Brandon Verge’s pad.

With the goaltender pulled and just seven seconds left on the clock, the Tigres drew to within one on a quick faceoff win and pass from Benoit Doucet to Mike Ramsay.

“With the playoffs now in sight, those are the kinds of goals we need to stop,” Durocher said. “The first goal was a preventable goal, and the team stopped playing hard late in the third for those. After that, it was a good game.”

Richard Stehlik gave the Maineiacs a 1-0 lead in his first game for the team in over a month. Taking a rebound from his own goaltender’s pads, Stehlik skated from end to end, burying a wrist shot high to the glove side on Tordjman.

Tommy Lafontaine and Kyle Doucet staked the Tigres to a 2-1 lead after one period on goals three minutes apart late in the first, and Picard notched his 30th of the season in the second to tie the score.

Lewiston takes the ice again at home on Sunday as it faces Acadie-Bathurst at the Central Maine Civic Center.

jpelletier@sunjournal.com

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