LEWISTON — The easiest way for the Lewiston Maineiacs to score a goal against the Halifax Mooseheads is to wait until 20-year-old netminder Jeremy Duchesne isn’t patrolling the blue paint in front of the net.

Somehow, though, Lewiston managed two goals against their nemesis and another into an empty net with less than a minute to play to secure a 3-1 win over the visiting Mooseheads in front of 2,089 at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee on Thursday night.

“He was just outstanding,” Maineiacs head coach Clem Jodoin said of Duchesne. “He plays well against us every time. Tonight, he kept doing what he’s been doing for years, stopping the puck.”

“He’s one of the top goaltenders in the league and every time he plays he gives us a chance to win,” said Halifax coach Cam Russell. “He did it tonight, stopped a few breakaways. He did his job.”

It appeared that Duchesne was again going to stymie the Maineiacs, with a little help from his vertical, red iron friends framing the net. Twice in the first period, Lewiston skaters popped shots behind the netminder, only to watch them ring off the post. The Maineiacs outshot Halifax 15-7 in the first.

“How many shots did he have? Fifty, maybe?” mused Maineiacs’ forward Stefan Chaput following the game. “He played awesome.”

Even worse for the home team, Halifax managed their lone goal early in the second to take a 1-0.

“We just had to keep moving and not give up there,” said Daneau. “It would have been easy to do that.”

But Lewiston’s hottest line of late responded just 2:10 later. Chris Tutalo swept a rare rebound past a sprawled Duchesne to even the score.

Lewiston’s Marc-Andre Daneau followed that with a goal on his own second rebound. That third attempt found its way through two pairs of skates and, improbably, Duchesne’s pads.

“If you want to score (against Duchesne) you have to go hard at the net,” said Daneau. “I shot through the hole in the legs and followed the shot.”

Duchesne did stop three Maineiacs’ breakaways and a Chad Denny slap shot that may have broken the net had it gone past him.

“He’s an NHL-drafted goalie, he’s 20-years-old, and that’s how he has to play every single night,” said Russell.

Halifax had its chances late, though, and Jonathan Bernier replied to Duchesne’s heroics. With less than a minute to play, Bernier aborted a poke-check attempt and instead slid toward a wide-open Justin Saulnier. Saulnier, all alone, took the feed across the slot, but with Bernier on top of him fumbled the puck into Bernier’s pads.

“I went right at him,” said Bernier. “He couldn’t do anything and I just put my stick onto his stick.”

Riding the shift in momentum, Stefan Chaput and Jakub Bundil, playing with Chaput in place of the suspended Stefano Giliati, broke into the Halifax zone 2-on-1 with an empty net behind the lone defender. Chaput elected to slide the puck to Bundil instead of taking the wide open shot himself, and the lanky Slovakian forward pounded home his second goal of the season.

“Bundil played a great game and I figured I’d get him a point, help him build his confidence,” said Chaput.

The same teams square off tonight at 7 at the Colisee.

The Maineiacs will take a six-game winning streak into tonight’s game.