LEWISTON – St. John’s just couldn’t keep up with Lewiston’s speed, nor could they keep up on the scoreboard, and the Maineiacs took every advantage possible Thursday night and parlayed them into a 5-1 win over the expansion Fog Devils in front of 1,931 at the Colisee.
The win is Lewiston’s third at home this season, while St. John’s has now lost two games in a row by a combined score of 10-3.
“We can’t win with no goaltending,” said St. John’s coach Real Paiement. “The last two games, we have had no goaltending.”
The Maineiacs took advantage of Fog Devils’ netminder Ilya Ejov early and often, putting into action a game plan developed after a loss to Moncton on Sunday during which Lewiston managed few shots from close range.
“We wanted to use our speed and get shots on net,” said Lewiston assistant coach Jeff Guay. “We had some problems in the Moncton game, so we wanted to put every pass tonight on the tape, and every shot on net, and I think we did a fairly good job of that. We created offense and drove the net.”
Pier-Luc Champagne had the night of his short career, at least on the scoresheet, with three assists, while both Jakub Bundil and Maxime Mathieu scored their first goals of the season to help push the Maineiacs over the top.
“I think I played a good game on defense, too,” said the 17-year-old Champagne. “The points came because of that, I think. Against that team, you have to keep your feet moving. They want to play on the boards and with the body all the time.”
Mathieu’s first of the season was the Maineiacs’ first of the game, and came just two minutes in off a rebound from a point shot by Brandon Roach.
“I worked so hard to finally get a goal,” said Mathieu. “It’s so much pressure off now. I knew it would come eventually. When you work hard, goals will happen. Now, I hope it starts a streak.”
Chad Denny scored his 11th of the season on a blast from the left point at 5:07 to make it 2-0, and Marc-Andre Daneau added his second goal in as many games at 17:45 to put the home team ahead 3-0.
After the break, Paiement lifted Ejov in favor of Matthew Spezza, but his plan to slow down Lewiston’s top line was already scrapped thanks to the Maineiacs’ early offensive dominance.
“We wanted to match up a couple of lines,” said Paiement. “They are pretty much a one-line team, and we wanted to stop Aubin, Cliche and Castonguay. After that, they have a couple of guys that can get a point here and there, so we wanted to keep them off the scoresheet, but we had no chance to apply our plan.”
Spezza fared better for a while, and some of the Lewiston faithful started to sweat in the second period when Luke Gallant knocked a third-chance rebound past Lewiston netminder Jonathan Bernier to cut the lead to 3-1.
“I thought Jonathan Bernier had a great game,” said Guay. “I know he didn’t see that many shots, but especially in the second period I thought he played well when they had some pressure on us.”
Aubin notched his team-leading 16th goal two minutes after Gallant’s tally to put the Maineiacs back up by three, and Bundil finished the scoring in the third with a long-range slap shot that beat Spezza high to the glove side.
“I just shot at the net,” Bundil said in his best broken English. “It was great. I waited so long to get the first goal in the Q. I hope tomorrow I can get another one.”
As the final minutes ticked off the clock, several small skirmishes erupted after each whistle, culminating in a five-minute major penalty handed out to St. John’s forward Anthony Pototschnik after he hopped the bench on a line change and jumped Lewiston forward Stefano Giliati from behind as he skated through the neutral zone. Giliati had just laid a hit on a Fog Devils defenseman, who limped off the ice as Pototschnik hurdled the bench.
The same two teams will square off tonight at the Colisee at 7 p.m.
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