LEWISTON – The PEI Rocket are still looking for their first win under their new head coach, while the Lewiston Maineiacs are halfway to matching their early-season eight-game point streak.

Stefano Giliati scored a pair of goals – including an empty-netter – and Peter Delmas kicked out 26 of the 28 shots he saw to lift the Maineiacs over the Rocket 5-2 in front of 2,577 at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee.

The win is Lewiston’s fourth straight, while PEI has now dropped five in a row to land at the bottom of the Eastern Division.

“Peter kept us in the game early,” forward Chris Tutalo said. “We had to kick it into gear and things started coming around later in the first and on into the second and third.”

The Lewiston win came despite a soft start, though. Wanting to put the Rocket back on their heels early, Lewiston started slowly.

“We wanted to come out in the first period strong,” Maineiacs’ assistant coach Jeff Guay said. “We knew they’d lost four in a row and were hurting mentally, but we did the opposite. We still have to learn to do that. This happens when you play back-to-back games and you win the first one. Of course PEI is going to come out and battle. Everyone needed to play hard and tough and smart. We didn’t and we had some turnovers.”

A pair of quick goals remedied that situation, though. Danick Paquette notched his ninth of the season at 9:31 on a fantastic individual effort after a laser pass from Giliati. Taking the pass across the high slot at the left circle, Paquette wheeled around to the side of the net, used an outside-in move and stuffed the puck through PEI netminder Marc-Antoine Gelinas’ pads.

Captain Marc-Andre Daneau flipped the puck over Gelinas 45 seconds later to put the home team ahead 2-0.

“I think we started well, but there were a few opportunities in the first where we didn’t shoot when we could have,” PEI coach Guy Chouinard said. “Then the first mistake, the puck was in for them.”

In the second, PEI had a few chances to get close. The Rocket outshot the Maineiacs 12-4 in that frame, and Brett Morrison, who missed a breakaway against Jonathan Bernier on Friday, missed another against Delmas, who caught the puck with his left arm.

“I wanted to go out there and work on being really patient,” Delmas said. “I didn’t think I had enough speed to get over there, but I slid over and jammed it in between my arm and the side of my body.”

Giliati scored his first of the game and 12th of the season at 13:39 of the middle period to make it 3-0 Lewiston.

“Teams have trouble coming back with our system,” Giliati said. “We know how to keep a lead.”

Morrison did connect on a rebound goal at 16:07 to pull PEI within two at 3-1, but that’s as close as the Rocket got. Tutalo scored early in the third, Lucas McKinley followed to make it 4-2, but Giliati finished things off with an empty-netter with 11 seconds to play.

Near the end of the game, PEI forward Brad Gallant, already with one fight during the game, challenged Paquette to a fight. Paquette skated away, and on his way to the locker room, Gallant launched his helmet into the back hallway, nearly striking a fan.

All parties involved were O.K.

Lewiston next skates at home Tuesday against second-place Halifax at 7 p.m.