LEWISTON – Coming off of a big win over the top team in the West, the Lewiston Maineiacs were cognizant of a potential letdown.

It happened anyway, but Lewiston recovered after a wobbly first period, scoring three goals in the second and two more early in the third to defeat Val d’Or 5-3 in front of 2,130 fans at the Colisee on Sunday.

With the win, the Maineiacs move to 5-3-3 on the season and remain perfect at home (4-0-0).

“I was expecting it,” said Maineiacs coach Clem Jodoin of the sluggish start to the game. “When you have two big games in a row like we had, you reach a certain peak, and then you have a game like this, it is hard to come back up in intensity right away. It wasn’t easy to rebuild that intensity against Val d’Or.”

The Foreurs, currently in last place in the Western Division with just three wins and seven points, came into Sunday’s game 0-8 on the road this season. After nearly two periods of even play, Val d’Or collapsed late in the second on a power play goal by Maineiacs defenseman Brandon Roach.

“We are a young team and we have not had much success on the road this season,” said Val d’Or coach Claude Bouchard. “We do not have the morale right now to allow a goal like that so late in the period and be able to come back.”

The goal, a blast from the point after a nice pass across the blue line from Jonathan Paiement, came with just 31 seconds to play in the middle frame with Jonathan Charette in the box on a roughing call.

To open the third, Nicolas Cowan scored a nifty saucer pass from Sheldon Wenzel at 1:18, and Cowan, Wenzel and Maxime Mathieu combined for two goals and four assists for six points on the afternoon.

“I took the shot at first and the rebound came short on the side of the net,” said Wenzel. “I tried to bang it in again and it came back out. I saw Cowan streaking down the left side so I turned and fed him the puck. He just fired it home.”

Paiement added one of his own on a bouncing wrister from the right point at 2:56 of the final frame to give Lewiston a 5-1 lead, all but putting the game out of reach.

With the Lewiston defense relaxed, Val d’Or struck for two goals in the final 16 minutes, one from Etienne Grandmont and the other from Mark Hurtubise.

Rookie goaltender Jonathan Bernier recorded his first home win of the season, lifting his overall record to an even 2-2-1. Val d’Or’s Guillaume Blouin dropped to 1-3-0 on the season with the loss, and was replaced after the Maineiacs’ fifth goal by Julien Walsh, who stopped all six shots he faced.

Lewiston opened the scoring in the second period when Guy Belisle took a faceoff win from Colby Gilbert at the top of the left circle, slid to his right and fired a wrister that deflected off of a defender on its way through and found the net. Six minutes later, Martin Thibeault slid a shot from a tough angle along the goal line past Bernier to knot the score, but Wenzel picked up a goal on a Cowan rebound at 9:52 to put the Maineiacs ahead for good.

Lewiston continues its extended homestand on Wednesday with a game against the Baie-Comeau Drakkar.