LEWISTON — It’s taken 34 games and plenty of practice hours, but Marc-Andre Perron finally earned his way onto the ice Tuesday night.

With his debut performance between the pipes at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee, the 19-year-old goaltender made a strong case for a return engagement.

Perron made 34 saves, including several solid stops in an up-and-down second period, and the Lewiston Maineiacs got goals from five different players to snap a three-game skid with a 6-3 win over the Saint John Sea Dogs.

“At the beginning of the season, (Maineiacs’ head coach) Clem (Jodoin) told me my role and I knew my role,” said Perron. “I give all I can when I have the chance to play. I will keep working hard like I do every time and hopefully I will get to play again.”

Perron had dressed for a handful of games as a backup to either Jonathan Bernier or Peter Delmas this season, but had yet to tend the net for the Maineiacs.

“Marc-Andre Perron played a whale of a hockey game,” said Maineiacs’ assistant coach Ed Harding. “He’s worked his tail off for us this season in practice, every day. I’m extremely proud of him.”

On offense, Chris Tutalo led the way for the Maineiacs with two goals, while fourth-line regular David Taylor contributed a goal and two assists.

“They were smart, they got the puck down low, got a little cycle going and got the puck to the net,” said Harding. “Our goal was to shoot the puck often.”

Tutalo’s pair came in a five-goal second period for the Maineiacs which saw the home team chase former teammate Maxime Joyal from the net after four goals on 20 shots.

“Coming off the road trip we just had, it was important for us to go out there and send a message,” said Tutalo. “It’s good that we had this kind of game to build some confidence going into this weekend.”

Eric Castonguay started things with his 10th of the season just 41 seconds into the frame. Tutalo potted his first at 4:55 and Marc-Andre Daneau sailed a weak wrist shot from 45 feet out past Joyal.

“Our goaltending was awful, pathetic,” said Saint John coach Jacques Beaulieu. “Two goals on wrist shots from outside the blue line, it’s unacceptable. I thought the team played well otherwise.”

Taylor converted a behind-the-back feed from Danick Hudon-Paquette into his fourth of the season at 13:16 to make it 5-0, and Tutalo added his second of the game and 10th of the season 35 seconds later to push the lead to six against backup Aaron Barton.

“I didn’t think I did that much,” said Taylor. “I just played my game and the puck bounced the right way for me and I was in the right place at the right time.”

The Sea Dogs tried to claw their way back into the game in the third and scored three unanswered goals, something that didn’t sit well with the Lewiston coaching staff.

“I was extremely disappointed with my team,” said Harding. “Extremely disappointed. “We need to be smarter. We had too many turnovers, guys trying to be a little too high-risk, curling and dragging, stepping up when they shouldn’t.”

Marc-Andre Crete scored his first career goal at 14:27 to give the Maineiacs a 1-0 lead, thanks in part to Sea Dogs’ forward Dave Bouchard.

Crete, on a feed from Paquette, fired a quick wrist shot toward the net through traffic. The puck hit a leg in front, bounced off of Joyal and high into the air. Bouchard tried to send the puck out of the zone Bjorn Borg-style, but he swatted it instead off of Joyal’s back and into his own net.

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