VAL D’OR, Quebec – One down, two to go.

The Lewiston Maineiacs opened their three-game-in-three-night road trip in style on Friday, getting two goals from Richard Stehlik in a 4-2 comeback win over the Val d’Or Foreurs at the Palais des Sports in front of 1,671 fans.

The win is the seventh consecutive win for the Maineiacs, and ninth in their last 11 games. With the win, the Maineiacs stay five points back of Chicoutimi and are now also five back of Rimouski for the division lead.

“It was a big win for us for sure,” Maineiacs coach Mario Durocher said. “We played a smart hockey game as the game went on, and it is important to play that way on the road. As for the other teams, we can only take care of our games. Our concern is us.”

Lewiston started the third period down 2-1, but were fortunate that Val d’Or took two penalties near the beginning of the third. With two skaters in the box for the Foreurs, Stehlik, playing forward on the power play, scored his second goal of the game on a rebound in front of the net when Gabriel Balasescu launched a wrist shot from the left circle.

“We had been working on that all week in practice,” Stehlik said. “To see a wide open net, it’s a good thing.”

Matt Davis made an amazing diving stop with 2:40 remaining in the game to preserve the two goal cushion, lunging from his left to right to get a paddle on a David Collymore shot that was headed for an open net.

“One of their players was on top of me, and I didn’t know if they were going to call a penalty,” Davis said. “I just knew I didn’t want to give up a goal in the last five minutes.”

Karl Fournier inadvertently gave the Maineiacs the lead at 9:05 when a Jonathan Paiement shot deflected off of his back and past Val d’Or netminder Maxime Daigneault.

Balaz finished the scoring at 11:22 on a breakaway after stealing the puck at his own blue line. In alone on Daigneault, Balaz shifted to his right and slid the puck along the ice past the goalie, who tried to poke check the puck away.

“It was 50/50,” Balaz said. “The puck was on edge the whole way down, so at the last second I decided to go to the five-hole.”

Neither team staked a solid claim to the first period, with both teams looking rusty after a five-day layoff. On the scoreboard, the Foreurs managed to pull ahead late in the first, getting its first goal on a turnover at the Maineiacs’ blue line. As the Lewiston defense tried to get the puck to Vladislav Balaz, Luc Bourdon intercepted the puck at the blue line. Two Val d’Or forwards were late getting back and remained down low, and Bourdon found Jeff Cotton at the edge of the right circle. Cotton one-timed the puck past a lunging Matt Davis to put Val d’Or up 1-0.

Val d’Or pushed its lead to 2-0 at the 10-minute mark of the second period, again on a blue-line turnover. This time, Pierre-Luc Faubert tried to chip the puck out, but Chaz Johnson picked it off with his back to the goalie. Johnson wheeled and fired a bullet of a wrist shot to the top left corner of the net, past a stunned Davis.

“We did not do well that period doing the little things, “Durocher said. “It was too individual and we were looking too much for the perfect pass.”

Lewiston finally got on the board at 15:35 of the second frame. Ryan Murphy won the puck on an offensive-zone faceoff back to Stehlik, who has one of the hardest shots in the league. Stehlik crept in to the high slot and let go a slapshot that beat Daigneault high to the glove side.