LEWISTON – The puck just seems to be moving slower these days for Lewiston Maineiacs goaltender Jaroslav Halak.

“Everything is slower for me now,” said Halak. “Now the passes, the shots are slower since I was at the junior tournament.”

Apparently, slower pucks are easier to stop, too.

Halak made several key saves in the second and third period and Marc-Andre Cliche scored the game-winning goal while sliding across the crease on his back at 7:48 of the second period as the Maineiacs upended the Val d’Or Foreurs 3-1 in front of 2,759 fans at the Colisee.

The win lifts the Maineiacs’ home winning streak to seven and is the 10th win for the team in its last 13 games. Overall, Lewiston is now 21-17-7, and sits in eighth place overall, two points back of Rimouski with one game in hand.

“Any time it’s a tight game, the goalie is a big key,” said Maineiacs coach Clem Jodoin. “(Friday) night was a tough game and were banged up, and Halak was the difference.”

Halak made 29 saves for his fourth consecutive win since returning from the World Junior tournament. In those games, he has allowed just six goals.

“I just have to keep my focus out there on every shift,” said Halak. “Before, too, I would put the rebound out for my defense and the other team would get shots again. Now, they are hitting it to the corners and out of the zone. That is good for me.”

And good for the Maineiacs, as was the debut of Sebastien Piche, the 16-year-old from Rouyn-Noranda who played in his first game with the Maineiacs after coming over from the Huskies in a trade.

“He had composure,” said Jodoin. “He moves the puck well, he made hard passes and he never panicked. I have to give credit top the scouts on this one. They told me Do it, do it, do it,’ so I listened.”

Piche nearly notched his first career goal on the day that Olivier Legault did the same.

Legault, who has played for more than two full years in the league without scoring a goal, had a puck deflect off of the back of his leg as he crashed the net at 7:31 of the first period to open the scoring in the game.

He was unavailable for comment following the game, however, because later in the first, as he went down to block a shot from the point in his own zone, the puck hit him square in the jaw. Legault lost five teeth and suffered a broken jaw. He did not return.

Three minutes after his goal, though, the Foreurs knotted the score at one when Jean-Sebastien Breton benefited from the same puck-luck that brought Legault his first tally, taking a shot off the leg as it redirected past Halak at 10:21.

Cliche batted the puck past Val d’Or netminder Francois Proteau as he slid across the crease on his back after both Colby Gilbert and Maxime Mathieu had whacks at it to put Lewiston ahead for good.

“It’s so hard,” said Gilbert, who was again one bounce away from scoring his first goal on home ice. “You watch, I’ll score one (in Drummondville). We all had whacks at it, though, and as long as it goes in, that’s what mattered.”

“I think I got it with one hand on my stick,” said Cliche, who also left the game early due to a relapse of a shoulder injury that has plagued him all season. He is listed as day-to-day.

Eric Castonguay, who is now tied for eighth overall in the league for goals by a rookie, took a perfect feed from Alex Bourret and marched in alone on Proteau at 16:41 of the third, scoring his 15th goal of the season to ice the game.

Lewiston left immediately following Saturday’s game for Drummondville, where it will square off against the Voltigeurs at 2 p.m. this afternoon.