LEWISTON – St. John’s Fog Devils’ coach Real Paiement looked at the clock as the seconds ticked away near the midway point of the third period and appeared hypnotized by the red number in the goal column.

His team, meanwhile, appeared hypnotized by the Lewiston Maineiacs from the opening face-off.

Simon Courcelles and Pierre-Luc Faubert led seven different goal scorers with two goals each to lead the Maineiacs to a 9-1 victory over the visiting Fog Devils in front of 2,769 at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee on Friday.

“We started the game with the best of intentions,” said Paiement. “If the fourth line of the other team handles you like they handled all of our lines, you know you’re in trouble.”

The victory was the Maineiacs 12th straight. In the win, 14 of the team’s 18 skaters recorded at least one point, and goaltender Jonathan Bernier was rarely tested, but stopped 21 shots to earn his 18th victory of the season.

“Everybody played, everybody brought something to the game,” said Maineiacs coach Clem Jodoin.

Part of the Fog Devils’ problem, according to Paiement, was his goaltending tandem. Ilia Ejov started and allowed four goals on 15 shots before being yanked. Devin O’Brien started the second period for St. John’s, and allowed four more on just 11 Lewiston shots.

“The only reason I alternated is because it’s illegal to have them both in there at the same time,” said Paiement.

Ejov returned for the third and played better, but by then, it didn’t matter.

What did matter to Lewiston, though, was preserving the health and well-being of its players.

“I wasn’t worried about (the physical play),” said Jodoin. “For me, I told them to move the puck, let the puck do the work and keep skating.”

“Between the periods, the guys talked to each other, about staying in the game,” said Faubert. “We know we have to play six periods against them this weekend, so we wanted to make sure every period, we worked hard and prepare our game for (today).”

Marc-Andre Cliche left the game early after feeling sick, and Stefan Chaput will be a game-day decision for a minor leg injury kept him out Friday.

In the game, there was just one fight, when Ryan Graham took on Jakub Bundil after he thought Bundil illegally hit another Fog Devil.

“They didn’t seem like they wanted to play,” said Maineiacs’ forward Triston Manson. “Up there, they were hitting us and asking us to fight when the game got out of hand. No one asked me to fight tonight.”

Jakub Bundil started things off on a perfect finish of a Danick Hudon-Paquette spin move 5:21 into the game. Faubert followed at 9:51 with his first of the game, banking the puck off of St. John’s defenseman Luke Gallant.

“We worked hard for the goals,” said Faubert, “but some of them, we got lucky too. We had some plays, like (Stefano) Giliati and Bundil, where they found the holes, too.”

Giliati’s goal at 17:01 was one of those, as the speedster picked the top right corner above Ejov’s shoulder as the netminder tried to hug the post. Courcelles added his first of the game at 19:35 to chase Ejov.

In the second, David Perron, newly crowned QMJHL Rookie of the Month for November, potted his team-leading 19th of the season. Chris Tutalo followed with his eighth, Marc-Andre Daneau with his ninth, Courcelles with his second of the game and eighth of the year.

“You have to angle them and put a body on them, and we didn’t do that,” said Paiement. “With a team like that, they’re rolling on confidence and they have speed, so if you don’t start eliminating people (from their lanes) they’re going to score a half a dozen or a dozen every game.”

Nick Layton snuck the puck past Bernier at 17:52 of the second to spoil his shutout bid, and the teams played out the string in the third. Faubert struck for the Maineiacs’ second shorthanded goal of the game at 13:24.

The teams will face off again tonight at the Colisee at 7.

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