LEWISTON – The first indication of how things would go for the Lewiston Maineiacs in their QMJHL matchup with the St. John’s Fog Devils on Wednesday night came just 3:46 into the game.
Lewiston forward Marc-Andre Cliche fired a slapshot and watched as the puck squirted through the pads of St. John’s netminder Ilya Ejov.
Aware that the referee hadn’t whistled the play dead, Ejov turned and plucked the puck from the goal line.
Despite 55 shots on net and 12 power plays, the Maineiacs fell short against the Fog Devils, falling 3-2 in front of 2,029 at the Colisee.
“They were finishing their checks right away,” said Maineiacs assistant coach Jeff Guay. “They came out of the gates, the floodgates opened. We were a little bit slow, we weren’t first on the puck, and when you’re not first on the puck, you get caught behind and the next thing you know you’re down 3-0.”
Despite the win, there was little celebrating in the Fog Devils’ locker room.
“We can’t accept two points tonight,” said St. John’s coach Real Paiement. “It was our game, 3-0. They weren’t even close on execution, on work ethic, on physical play, and we stopped. We let them come back. If it’s not for luck and for Ejov, it’s not even a close game.”
Ejov stopped 53 of the 55 shots that went his way, and benefited from four shots that hit posts, two off the stick of Lewiston captain Brandon Roach.
“We got a little snake-bitten tonight,” said Guay. Sometimes that happens.”
Despite the slow start and a 3-0 third-period deficit, Lewiston nearly pulled off the comeback. Cliche got one of the team’s first good bounces of the game at 8:42 of the final frame when he fired a shot at Ejov that bounced off the goaltender’s back and into the net, cutting the St. John’s lead to 3-1.
At 15:43, Eric Castonguay cut the lead to one with a goal into an empty net, again on a Maineiacs power play.
“We stopped skating,” said Paiement, “so now we were grabbing and hooking and you get the sticks up. If you don’t skate, you can’t have the proper body position, which you have to have in today’s game. he called every hand that was away from the body and every stick that was out. There’s no reason for us to do that.”
But Ejov held tough from there, even holding the Maineiacs scoreless with a 6-on-4 as time expired with Lewiston netminder Jonathan Bernier pulled late.
“He’s a little bit better since we saw him up in St. John’s that first week,” said Guay. “He’s not all over the place like he was before, when he was diving and flopping. Even tonight, I thought he was fighting the puck a little bit and we had a couple trickle through, but I think he had a better foundation than in the past.”
Oscar Sundh scored the game’s first goal at 11:45 of the first period with the Fog Devils on the power play. Wesley Welcher broke in unchecked from the point and took a behind-the-back feed from Marty Doyle in the right corner to put St. John’s ahead 2-0 after one period.
Luke Gallant made it 3-0 in the second with a low wrister from the high slot.
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