LEWISTON – If league-leading Halifax has a weakness, the Lewiston Maineiacs would like to think they’ve found it.

Using speed the Mooseheads couldn’t seem to handle in the Halifax zone, and with solid goaltending from Jonathan Bernier, the Maineiacs skated off the Androscoggin Bank Colisee ice Wednesday night with a surprising 6-1 win. The loss equaled the Mooseheads’ worst of the season, and was a breath of fresh air for a Maineiacs team that had been struggling with consistency.

“We needed these two points,” Lewiston coach Ed Harding said. “We had to have these two points. If we didn’t, we were in big trouble.”

The win moves Lewiston to 19-12-1-1 (40 points), and puts the Maineiacs just six points back of the Mooseheads in the Eastern Division standings.

David Taylor was the big point-getter Wednesday, earning a pair of goals and two assists.

“One was a lucky bounce on a pass, and the other hit me on the way by,” Taylor said. “I guess it was just my night to have the bounces.”

Danick Paquette had a pair of pretty goals, and Stefano Giliati had three assists. Bernier made 35 saves to earn his seventh win in 13 tries.

“I made the first saves tonight, and the guys were there for the rebounds,” Bernier said.

Despite the win – and a lopsided win at that – Harding was less than pleased with the overall team effort.

“In the first 25 seconds of the game, we turned the puck over three times,” Harding said. “We couldn’t move the puck, or we couldn’t get it out of our zone. This team, we have a huge problem. We don’t battle hard enough on the half-boards, and we can’t get the puck in deep.”

When Lewiston did get the puck behind Halifax goalie Pier-Olivier Pelletier (15 saves), the cycle worked well, especially against the Halifax defensemen not named Andrew Bodnarchuk and Guillaume Monast.

“We didn’t give them a lot of chances, but when we gave them the chances, they scored,” Halifax coach Cam Russell said. “Obviously Monast and Bodnarchuk are our top defensemen, and they control the play very well. We have confidence in our other defensemen, though, too.”

The game started with a tinge of familiarity for Lewiston. Paquette scored his 11th of the season late in the first to give the Maineiacs a 1-0 edge. Taylor added another early in the second, and for the fourth straight game, Lewiston went ahead 2-0.

“It seemed like the same thing all over again,” forward Stefan Chaput said. “We knew what we had to do out there all game, and like Bernier said in the locker room, we came out here like it was a playoff game.”

Later in the second, after some penalty trouble, Halifax cut the lead to 2-1 on a Ryan Hillier goal on the power play.

This time, instead of folding, Lewiston came out firing.

“We struggled the last few games with the lead,” Bernier said. “We came out harder in the third period because we wanted the win.”

Jakub Bundil rifled a shot on a breakaway just under the crossbar that made the water bottle behind Pelletier jump to make it 3-1. Less than three minutes later, Paquette stuffed home a pass from Chaput on a give-and-go 2-on-1, and four minutes after that, Taylor tipped a Chaput shot over Pelletier’s shoulder to make it 5-1.

Marc Bourgeois added the final tally when his pass on the power play hit a Halifax defenseman’s stick and caromed into the net.

Lewiston next plays at home Friday against the Quebec Remparts.