Lewiston finally hits the .500 mark after beating Acadie-Bathurst 5-2.
By Justin Pelletier
Staff Writer

LEWISTON – If there were more icing calls in the first period Sunday than fans see in a normal game, it wasn’t by accident.

Acadie-Bathurst was playing its third game in as many nights, and combined with its traditional tight-checking, trapping style, the Titan were bound to miss a few long passes in the early going.

Their plan worked for a while, but fizzled under the Maineiacs’ intense forward pressure.

Sheldon Wenzel scored the game-winning goal at 16:26 of the second period and the Maineiacs defense allowed just eight shots to reach goaltender Matt Davis in the second and third period as Lewiston continued on its winning streak, downing Bathurst 5-2 at the Central Maine Civic Center.

The win was Lewiston’s sixth straight and eighth in the last 10 games. It also brings the team’s season record to .500 for the first time this season.

“We like the win, for sure,” Maineiacs coach Mario Durocher said, “but we still have a lot of work to do. It is easier to teach things to players, though, when the team is winning. They buy into what we say when they see that it is working.”

Titan goaltender Joel Quirion made several solid stops and ended up with 37 saves in the loss.

Early in the season, the Maineiacs were playing solid hockey, but the bounces seemed to always fall in their opponents’ favor, making Durocher’s job tough.

Not lost on Durocher at all Sunday night was the team’s ability to hold a 5-2 lead for an extended period of time, a task the Maineiacs failed Friday against Victoriaville.

“I told them after the first period (when it was tied 2-2) that if they wanted to keep me smiling, we couldn’t allow them to score more than two goals, and we had to keep them under 30 shots,” Durocher said. “They got eight more shots and didn’t score again.”

Wenzel broke the 2-2 tie late in the second on a rebound in front from a Brandon Roach shot. The goal was like redemption for the power forward, who had hit the post on an earlier breakaway, and missed an open net while all alone in front.

Vladislav Balaz added an insurance goal at 18:46 of the middle frame on a diving pass by Nicolas Cowan, and Gabriel Balasescu finished the scoring on a feed from the left corner by Alexandre Picard.

“I am disappointed that we gave them their second, fourth and fifth goals like we did,” Bathurst coach Real Paiement said. “We can’t come in to play this team on our third game in three nights and do that.”

All three of those goals were grinding goals in front of the net, with no defenders to clear the puck away from the top of the crease.

Chris Hodgson gave the Titan a temporary 2-1 lead at 17:23 of the first, but Jonathan Paiement slapped a backhander from in close past Quirion with six second left in the period to even the score.

Lewiston travels to Val d’Or, Rouyn-Noranda and Gatineau for its next three games, and returns home on Thursday, Jan. 29, for a game against the Quebec Remparts.

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