LEWISTON – After 143 minutes and 36 seconds, the Lewiston Maineiacs finally solved their goal-scoring problem, and it took a date against former Lewiston goaltender Travis Fullerton for it to happen.

Once they did, though, the goals came in bunches.

Five different Maineiacs found the back of the net and Chad Denny added three assists to lead Lewiston to a 5-2 win over Saint John in front of 3,152 at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee on Saturday.

“We worked hard (Friday against Shawinigan) and they didn’t come,” Maineiacs forward Stefan Chaput said. “We got the bounces today, got a few rebounds on the first two, and that gave us the goals we needed to get going.”

Chaput joined Eric Castonguay, Chris Tutalo, Simon Courcelles and Pierre-Luc Faubert on the scoresheet, and the Maineiacs’ power play, which had been dormant for two weeks, awoke with two goals in five tries.

“I had a power play meeting at five o’clock. I told them exactly what I was thinking,” Maineiacs’ coach Clem Jodoin said. “We went through every aspect of the game. I told them, ‘Hey guys, sorry, but we are not doing the job.'”

The power play worked in the third to a T.

Eric Castonguay broke a 2-2 tie at 15:12 of the period on a rebound in front of Fullerton, who finished with 37 saves.

“Chad (Denny) has an awesome shot. He put the puck on the net,” Castonguay said. “The puck came across, I found it and put it in. That was a big thing, to score. It had been a long time.”

Pierre-Luc Faubert connected at 17:01, again on the power play, to push the lead to two, and Courcelles iced it with an empty-net goal at 19:48.

Jonathan Bernier was solid in net for Lewiston, stopping 17 of 19 in the win.

Kevin Guerette-Charland gave the Sea Dogs a 1-0 lead at 18:45 of the first period on a wrap-around.

With less than 10 seconds left on a penalty to Denny, Bernier tried to clear the puck from in front of his own net. His lob was just short enough for Alex Grant to grab the puck out of the air and send it back behind the net. Bernier, slow to recover, bit on Charland’s fake to the left side, and was late back to the right as Charland slipped the puck inside the post.

After Bruce Crawford scored to put the Sea Dogs ahead 2-0, the Maineiacs snapped their scoreless streak at 9:30 of the middle frame when Chris Tutalo banged home a Simon Courcelles rebound at the top of the crease.

“It’s more how we play, than our scoring,” Jodoin said. “I look at, we played well against St. John’s, ran into a goalie who was a star in the game. The goalie was the star in the game against Shawinigan, and again tonight, Fullerton was a star. But we played well, and tonight, we were rewarded.”

Chaput evened the score 2:31 later on another rebound goal, this time on a shot by Stefano Giliati that bounded to Fullerton’s left.

The Maineiacs will play their next three on the road. Thursday, Lewiston will face Halifax, and on Friday, the Maineiacs will start a two-game set in Sydney, Nova Scotia against the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles.

jpelletier@sunjournal.com