LEWISTON – The Lewiston Maineiacs’ power play has gone from laughable to one of the most feared forces in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League seemingly overnight, and Sunday the team found success against a familiar nemesis with one of the better penalty kill units in the league.
Jonathan Paiement had a hat trick and Mathieu Aubin and Marc-Andre Cliche each had a goal – all on the power play – to lead the Maineiacs to a 5-3 win over the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies in front of 2,212 at the Colisee.
“The Maineiacs work very hard and they skate a lot and they create turnovers and force players to grab and to hook,” said Rouyn-Noranda coach Andre Tourigny. “They worked very hard and that’s the reason they won this game.”
The win gives Lewiston a 17-14-0-4 record through 35 games. The Maineiacs are currently fifth in the Eastern Conference with 38 points, five points behind the Halifax Mooseheads with one game in hand and seven ahead of idle St. John’s. The Maineiacs and Mooseheads both gained on idle Cape Breton on Sunday, though. The Maineiacs are nine points behind the third-place Screaming Eagles, and still have three games in hand.
In the game Sunday, the Maineiacs rediscovered their power play proficiency, which they had displayed earlier this season.
“At the beginning of the season we started out like a house afire on the PP,” said Maineiacs’ assistant coach Ed Harding. “It comes and goes, and now they have it back again. What’s happening is the guys are working harder. Sometimes, there’s a tendency when you’re 5-on-4 to relax a little bit. Now they’re working hard and they’re moving the puck very quickly.”
Taking fewer penalties also helped Lewiston, giving the Huskies just eight chances with an extra skater. Still, Harding wasn’t sold on his penalty kill unit.
“We still have work to do on our PK,” said Harding. “I’m not very happy about that right now. We had eight penalties tonight, and I’d like to get that down to about five per game. If we get it down to five I think we can kill it. It takes a very big big commitment to stand in front of a shot and if you’re going to be a PK guy you’re going to have to be smart and you have to have courage. We’re not quite there yet.”
The Maineiacs started slowly, coming in late to pucks and getting outworked in one-on-one battles. The Huskies got on the board first on the power play just 1:34 into the game when Nicholas Lafontaine pounced on a rebound in front of Lewiston netminder Jonathan Bernier.
The Maineiacs rebounded with two goals less than a minute apart, the first from Aubin at 13:47 and the second from Paiement at 14:18. Captain Brandon Roach had an assist on the first Paiement goal and finished with two on the night.
“We knew coming into this game that their offense is what’s been leading this team,” said Roach. “We’ve been trying to stay out of the box the best we can, and five-on-five we’re one of the better teams in the league, and I think it showed tonight.”
In the second, Lewiston twice went ahead by two. Paiement crept in from the point and made it 3-1 at 1:31 of the middle frame, and Cliche scored his goal at 15:10 after Justin Munden had pulled the Huskies to within one.
In the third, Yannick Riendeau potted his 19th of the season for the game’s only even-strength goal to again pull Rouyn-Noranda to within one, but Paiement finished the hat trick at 16:33 of the third to cap the scoring.
Lewiston now has eight days off for the holidays, and resumes playing with two games on the road on Dec. 27 and 28, at Halifax and Saint John. The team’s next home game is also against the Sea Dogs, on Dec. 30.
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