LEWISTON — The smile crept across Cape Breton coach Pascal Vincent’s face. He knew it.
In the Lewiston Maineiacs’ locker room, there were no sounds, save for the occasional clank of metal striking metal while players worked off the frustration by lifting weights. They knew it, too.
Saturday night’s game at the Colisee, in front of the largest home crowd of the season, may well be known, at least this season, as “the one that got away.”
Chad Denny fanned on a clearing attempt from behind his own net and he could only watch as Cam Fergus picked off the errant puck, swooped in to the low slot and beat Lewiston netminder Jonathan Bernier to lift the Screaming Eagles to a stunning, come-from-behind 3-2 overtime win over the Maineiacs.
“I missed my pass,” said Denny. “I fanned on the shot. It’s a mistake I made and now I just have to move on.”
For Cape Breton, the win is a big shot in the arm. Playing their second game in as many nights and after a 7-3 loss to Shawinigan on Friday, the Screaming Eagles were in desperation mode.
“We played really hard, we had a game plan to keep it really simple,” said Vincent. “We know Lewiston is pretty hot right now, and we knew we needed a little bit of chance to be successful and the help of Mr. Pavelec.”
Ondrej Pavelec, Cape Breton’s netminder, was nearly flawless.
“He got pulled twice last week (against Lewiston),” said Maineiacs assistant coach Jeff Guay. “When you get a chance to play against that team again, I’m sure you’re going to get fired up. I’m sure you’re going to find a way to win, and he did that tonight.”
The chances of which Vincent spoke were three-fold, all resulting in Eagles’ goals.
“It was very disappointing,” said Guay. “The last two goal, very disappointing. I think we gave them the last two goals.”
The overtime loss, Lewiston’s third such loss this season, is particularly painful because Cape Breton is one of the teams the Maineiacs are chasing in the Eastern Division. Halifax lost Saturday night to Moncton, and while the Maineiacs gained one point on the Mooseheads, they lost a point to third-place Cape Breton. The Eagles are now seven points ahead of Lewiston, though the Maineiacs have four games in hand.
“It’s a tough loss,” said Maineiacs forward Eric Castonguay. “Sure it was a point, but we needed two.”
Cape Breton started the scoring at 11:05 while shorthanded. A pass back to Brandon Roach at the point found Philippe Bertrand flying off the Eagles’ bench instead, and Bertrand raced up the ice with Brandon McDonald.
Roach tried to avert the cross-ice pass with a dive, but Bertrand managed to find McDonald in front and bank a pass off the streaking winger and into the net.
“I jumped late off the bench,” said Bertrand. “I was lucky to get the puck right there, but then I passed it right to McDonald.”
The Maineiacs converted on their third power play of the game 6:43 later. Castonguay found a Jonathan Paiement rebound at the right post and banged the puck home past a sprawled Pavelec, knotting the score at one.
“On my goal, he gave me a big rebound like he was doing all night,” said Castonguay.
Lewiston took the lead in the second period, on a Chris Tutalo tally on a feed from Stefano Giliati.
Bertrand tied the game with an unassisted goal with 10:59 left in regulation.
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