The road-weary Lewiston Maineiacs finished off a three-games-in-three-nights stretch in Moncton on Wednesday, falling to the defending league champions 4-2 at the Tim Horton’s 4-Plex.

“These are still kids,” said Maineiacs’ head coach Clem Jodoin. “They are not robots or machines, and this is their first trip of the season. We left Monday morning and with travel, game, travel, game, it was tough on them. But, we still played. We had some good things, and there were some things we still will have to work on.”

Four different Moncton skaters scored, including veterans Christian Gaudet, Jerome Samson and Andrew MacDonald, and returning netminder Guillaume Blouin stopped 17 shots in the win.

Marc-Andre Perron tended the net for Lewiston, stopping 26 of 30 to suffer the loss, which drops the Maineiacs’ preseason record to 5-2.

“He had a very good camp,” said Jodoin, “and tonight was his first bad game of the camp. He let in a few soft goals, but this is not the end for him. It’s all a process. He is still a rookie even though he is 19.”

Lewiston started well, though had few shots to show for it in the first period. The Maineiacs fired just two shots at Blouin in the first frame, but both found their way past him and into the net.

Chad Denny launched the Maineiacs’ efforts with a power-play goal just 51 seconds into the game on passes from Jakub Bundil and Chris Tutalo. MacDonald knotted the game at 3:20, and Marc-Andre Cliche potted his first of the preseason at 9:35 to put the Maineiacs back on top.

Jerome Samson tied the game back up at two with 2:20 to play in the period, and the Wildcats never trailed again. Gaudet scored 2:27 into the second to put the home team up 3-2, and rookie Matthew Brenton notched his first goal of the preseason 5:34 into the third to finish the scoring.

The Maineiacs will face Moncton again Friday at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee at 7 p.m.

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