LEWISTON – If frustration had a face, Maineiacs coach Clem Jodoin was it on Friday night.

Down and seemingly out, trailing 7-3 to start the third period, Lewiston killed off the remnants of a late second-period penalty and started to skate with an edge.

At the 10:17 mark, Alex Bourret scored his second goal of the night.

7-4.

Thirty-two seconds later, Brandon Roach blasted a shot from the right point that trickled across the line after squeezing between Chicoutimi netminder Alexandre Vincent’s pads.

7-5, and the crowd of more than 3,000 was hysterical.

And then came the parade to the penalty box.

Alexandre Picard went off for roughing, Sheldon Wenzel for a hook and the nail in the coffin came at 17:39 when Travis Mealy threw an elbow.

“We can’t win games from the penalty box,” said Jodoin, repeating a familiar refrain. “Bad penalties took us out.”

After Lewiston took a 3-1 edge midway through the first frame, Chicoutimi rattled off six straight goals in the next period and a half and held on late in the third, thanks to the three penalties, for a 7-5 win over the Maineiacs at the Colisee. The loss is the second consecutive home loss for Lewiston, which started the season 5-0-1 there. The Maineiacs are now 6-3-1 at the Colisee.

“Everything they touched in that time went in,” said Jodoin. “Everything that was going wide, they tipped. They all went in, everything.”

“When Lewiston scored two in a row, we thought we were in trouble at first,” said Chicoutimi coach Richard Martel. “But in major junior hockey, we know that you cannot think it is over until the end of the third period.”

Alex Bourret slid the puck past Vincent (25 saves) at 1:35, and he then set Picard up on the power play at 5:23 to give the home team a 2-0 edge.

After Marek Zagrapan pulled the Sagueneens to within one at 11:09, Bourret made one of the best plays of the year when he converted a Brandon Roach pass into a perfect cross-ice feed to Mathieu Aubin, who took his time lifting to puck into the net for another power play goal.

That was at 15:05. In 2:33, Chicoutimi took a lead that it would not relinquish on goals from David Desharnais, Francis Lemieux and Brent MacSween.

In the second, MacSween, Marc-Andre Roy and Shayne Tremblay continued the onslaught, driving Maineiacs netminder Jaroslav Halak (16 shots, 10 saves) out after the sixth goal.

From there, Chicoutimi enjoyed eight more power plays, and while the Sags failed to score, they held the Maineiacs at bay, not allowing any solid offensive chances until the 30-second, two-goal outburst in the final frame.

“The game of hockey is a game of contact,” said Jodoin. “We played well early, but we let them do what they want. We hit some guys, but not all the time. We are lucky we didn’t give up 50 shots.”

Lewiston plays its second of four consecutive home games Sunday when it hosts Baie-Comeau at 4 p.m.