LEWISTON – The Lewiston Maineiacs raised a pair of banners Thursday night, and then turned out the lights on the visiting Saint John Sea Dogs.

Veteran forward Stefano Giliati potted a pair of goals in the third period and captain Marc-Andre Daneau scored the clincher with 3:24 to play to lift the defending President’s Cup champion Maineiacs to a season-opening, banner-raising 4-1 win in front of 2,534 at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee.

“For a first game, we had a lot of motivation, with the home opener and raising the banners and everything, we kept our focus and came out great,” Giliati said.

Peter Delmas played a solid game in net, holding the Sea Dogs off the board in the third despite some intense pressure. The 17-year-old, second-year goalie made 23 saves on 24 shots, including several on a third-period Saint John power play, to preserve a scant one-goal lead.

“I think it was mostly the defense,” said an ever-humble Delmas. “In the first period, they were a little more nervous in front of me, but they played a good game overall, and they were a big reason why we won this game, why I made the saves I made.”

Giliati broke open a 1-1 game at 7:12 of the final frame with a delayed move after he was nearly tripped coming in on a breakaway. He let the puck slide through Travis Fullerton’s 5-hole as he moved to his right, faking the former Maineiac netminder out.

Just more than five minutes later, Giliati struck again, this time on a spin move after a Jakub Bundil rebound, to put Lewiston ahead 3-1.

“I’ve been practicing that move,” Giliati said. “Fullerton had me covered on the backhand, so I spun to the forehand. It set up perfectly.”

Daneau scored his first at 16:36 to effectively end the game on a roofed shot over Fullerton’s glove.

In a sluggish and sloppy first period, the Sea Dogs took advantage of a defensive breakdown in front of Delmas. Payton Liske swept in a rebound from a Chris DiDomenico shot at 16:53 of the opening frame to put the visitors ahead, 1-0.

“We were spinning our wheels (in the first),” Harding said. “I said, ‘Boys, make it easier for yourselves.’ There’s no excuses. We’re going with what we’ve got, and the guys played their hearts out.”

“After the first period, we all looked at each other, we all told each other we needed to refocus,” Giliati said. “Some of us were getting frustrated, but we kept our emotions under control and we turned it into positive energy.”

The Maineiacs appeared to awaken in the middle part of the second, buoyed in part by their sixth, seventh and eighth power plays of the game. On their seventh, they potted the equalizer. Danick Paquette pounded home a feed from behind the net off the stick of Chris Tutalo after Stefano Giliati set them up with a stop-and-go move at the left point. Paquette’s shot bounced through Fullerton and into the net to the relief of the gathered fans – and to the relief of the coaching staff and the players.

“I used my pitching wedge,” Paquette said with a smile. “Giliati made a great play to get it to Tutalo, and he just fed me in front.”

The Maineiacs finish their brief two-game, season-opening homestand Sunday at 4 p.m. when they face the Acadie-Bathurst Titan at the Colisee.

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