LEWISTON – The game should have been over long before the third period.

“We had no business being in this hockey game in the first place,” Lewiston Maineiacs’ head coach Ed Harding said.

But his team was in it, rallying to within a goal of the Halifax Mooseheads late in the third period.

That’s where they fell a bit short.

Boston Bruins’ prospect Andrew Bodnarchuk popped the puck past Lewiston netminder Jonathan Bernier at 15:56 of the third period to squelch the Maineiacs’ rally and lift his team to a 6-4 win in front of 2,099 at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee.

“They kept us in it,” Harding said. “When you get scored on in the first and last minute of the same period, you’re not going to win the game.”

Trailing 4-2 to begin the third, Lewiston allowed the Mooseheads another goal at 8:36, Peter-James Corsi’s second of the game.

That seemed to jog Lewiston into gear. Goals from Stefan Chaput and Lucas LaBelle pulled the Maineiacs to 5-4.

“We had a stretch in the third when we played well,” Harding said. “But we were still a little too individualistic in key situations during the game.”

Bodnarchuk’s goal later in the period iced the game for Halifax, which had lost four of their last five via the shootout.

The Maineiacs likely should have been in a much bigger hole than they were after the first period.

Thanks to a favorable call from the officiating crew and some timely saves from Bernier, though, the deficit was just one.

P.J. Corsi cleaned up a rebound with the Mooseheads on the power play at 3:43 of the opening frame to put the visiting team ahead by one.

Just nine second later, Daniel Smith crashed the net on a Yuri Cheremetiev shot. Bernier couldn’t control the rebound and Smith popped the puck into the net for a quick 2-0 lead.

Lewiston kept Halifax off the board the rest of the way, but the Maineiacs struggled to generate any offense. Their first shot on goal came 12:25 into the first, after Halifax already had registered 11 against Bernier.

Lewiston got a goal back at 13:39 of the first when Stefano Giliati’s pass to Alexander Beaton hit the rookie in the skate and deflected into the net past Halifax netminder Pier-Olivier Pelletier.

Halifax didn’t take long to reestablish its two-goal cushion. Just 15 seconds into the second, Cheremetiev slammed home his sixth of the season to put the Mooseheads ahead 3-1.

Tom Michalik scored his first goal of the season with a wrister at 13:01 to again pull Lewiston within one, but again the Mooseheads struck in a timely fashion, getting a shorthanded tally from Logan MacMillan at 19:26.

Danick Paquette took out Guillaume Monast with a charge at 11:06 of the middle frame, earning a five-minute major and a game misconduct. Monast was controlling the puck behind his own net when he tried to skate to his left. Paquette had him lined up from he top of the circle and sent him crashing into the boards. Monast lay motionless on the ice for several minutes before being helped off the ice by trainers from both sides and his teammates.

Lewiston will practice today and leave for St. John’s, Newfoundland on Thursday, where it will take on the Fog Devils twice over the weekend.