“That was huge.”
There is nothing much more Lewiston Maineiacs’ coach Jeff Guay could have said following his team’s game against Halifax on Wednesday night that would have captured the game’s weight. “Huge” might not even have been enough.
After falling behind by a goal on the first Halifax shot of the game, the Maineiacs rallied for three special teams goals in the second and held on for a 3-1 win over the Mooseheads, the team with which they are jostling for home-ice advantage in the playoffs.
“At the beginning of the game, the players don’t usually have to be at the rink until about five,” said Guay. “(Wednesday) they were showing up at four, four-fifteen. The best way I can describe it is like Game 1 of the playoffs.”
Stefano Giliati and Stefan Chaput had power-play goals and Marc-Andre Cliche added a short-handed tally in between for Lewiston, while Jonathan Bernier stopped the last 26 shots he saw to earn the win between the pipes.
“Bernier stood tall, especially in the third,” said Guay.
In the third, Lewiston went into an all-to-familiar defensive posture, allowing the Mooseheads a nearly 4-to-1 shots advantage.
Over the first two periods, though, the Maineiacs were well in control in that department, outshooting their hosts 34-16.
Lewiston now sits three points ahead of the Mooseheads, though Halifax has a game in hand. The Maineiacs have five games left in the regular season and are at 75 points, three better than their previous season best (72 in each of the previous two years).
Halifax scored in its first shot of the game at 1:15 of the first period to put the host Mooseheads ahead 1-0. Bryce Swan took a feed from Ryan Hillier, who was back in the lineup for the first time in three games, and redirected the puck past Bernier.
“Halifax, they like to send their forwards and have the defensemen send the puck high to them,” said Guay. “That’s what they did there, and the shot beat Bernier to the blocker side.”
The Maineiacs pressured from there, though, and outshot the Mooseheads by a healthy margin to finish out the opening period.
In the second period, building off of the momentum gained in the first – and thanks to a bad line change – Lewiston managed a power-play goal at 1:20 to knot the score. Giliati notched that one, his 18th of the year.
Cliche made it 2-1 for the Maineiacs with a short-handed goal at 8:49 on a feed from Mathieu Aubin. Lewiston couldn’t take advantage of a late 5-on-3 power play, but managed a goal on the ensuing 5-on-4, courtesy of Chaput, to take a 3-1 lead.
Lewiston will take Thursday off to travel, and will face Acadie-Bathurst in Bathurst on Friday before returning to the Colisee on Sunday to face the St. John’s Fog Devils.
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