By Justin Pelletier,Staff Writer

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia — Lewiston Maineiacs head coach Clem Jodoin sat with his staff in dead silence.

The report from Game 4 sat on the table to his right, his computer and video equipment in front of him, and his head was bowed between his arms.

“They played well, we didn’t,” said Jodoin. “That was it. There’s nothing more to say. We didn’t show up.”

The cost for the Lewiston no-show?

A 5-2 Halifax Mooseheads win in Game 4 of the best-of-7 series Thursday night, which tied the series at two and set up a pivotal Game 5 in Halifax on Saturday night.

“We put ourselves in a position now to shorten the series,” said Halifax coach Al MacAdam. “It’s an exciting time now for our players and we’ll prepare (today) for Game 5.”

The Mooseheads scored four power play goals, including three on three chances in the first period, and finally gave a raucous Halifax Forum crowd of 4,857 something to cheer about.

“It’s good for the players, too,” said MacAdam. “They were frustrated as well.”

“If we want to win, we have to show up,” said Jodoin. “We had no shots, nothing.”

At the end of the game, a melee put a big crimp in the Maineiacs’ roster. After a Kevin Cormier slash to Sebastien Piche left him writhing in pain on the ice, the teams got into a shoving match during which Jonathan Paiement left the bench and Maxime Mathieu left the penalty box. The penalties for both infractions are automatic five-game suspensions. Additionally, Jodoin acknowledged he has been suspended for two games for not controlling his players.

There was little doubt early in which direction the momentum had shifted. Through 10 minutes, Halifax outshot Lewiston 11-2 and already had two power play goals.

“The first goal seems to be the most important one in this series,” said Mooseheads defenseman Franklin MacDonald, who had two goals. “We handled the crowd better tonight, we weren’t as over-anxious.”

The Maineiacs penalty-killing unit, which was a perfect through three games, couldn’t seem to figure out the Halifax power play, which crashed the net harder and with more speed than in the previous three games.

The teams, particularly Halifax, picked up the physical intensity, which threw the Maineiacs off kilter early, a stumble from which they never recovered.

“We lost every battle, lost every faceoff,” said Jodoin. “We made bad passes, made mistakes, didn’t chip the puck, overplayed the puck. Bad decision after bad decision. Everybody, everybody played a bad game but one. (Goaltender) Jonathan Bernier had a good game, that’s it.”

MacDonald scored on a slapshot from the right circle through a screen to start the scoring at 5:37 of the first, and Garrett Peters added another power-play tally 20 seconds later to put Halifax ahead 2-0.

“I thought we had good puck movement early,” said MacAdam. “We capitalized early and the momentum kept going after that result.”

Bryce Swan took a feed from Rane Carnegie at put his team ahead 3-0 at 12:25. Lewiston crawled back to within two on a late power play goal of its own, but that was as close as the Maineiacs would get.

On another power play, this one in the opening minutes of the second, Lewiston allowed Halifax to score a short-handed goal on a 2-on-0 down low, and just 50 second later MacDonald notched his second of the night to extend the lead to 5-1.