LEWISTON – Perhaps in retrospect, Lewiston Maineiacs head coach Ed Harding would have sent his players off for their 10-day holiday break with one addition to their Christmas wish list – a can of Fix-A-Flat.

The Maineiacs were sluggish for the first two periods of Thursday night’s 3-1 loss to Moncton. While the Wildcats had to overcome a siesta of their own, a couple of trades they made over the break gave them the emotional springboard to take advantage.

“We’re still on vacation. I’ll take the blame on that,” Harding said. “I’m worried about that every time we have a break. You can question how we have the breaks, but every one’s on break.”

Harding had little more than a two-hour practice on Wednesday night to get his team back in the swing of things. It was clear 24 hours later that the Maineiacs hadn’t worked out the kinks, and a strong turnout of 3,039 fans to welcome them back was going to need some goading from the players to get into the game rather than the other way around.

Just 33 seconds after Jesse Biduke’s power-play goal put Moncton up 1-0 in the first period, Lewiston appeared to get the emotional boost it needed when Matt Bourdeau was awarded a penalty shot, but Moncton goalie Nicola Riopel got his glove on Bourdeau’s wrister to preserve the lead.

“I was maybe a little nervous,” Bourdeau said. “If I could go back and change anything, I definitely would maybe made a second move.”

Moncton continued to carry the play in the second period, outshooting Lewiston, 14-6. Last week, the Wildcats traded top-line forward Matt Marquardt to Baie-Comeau, then hours before last night’s contest, they unloaded another top Phil Mangan, to St. John’s.

Despite being short-handed, Moncton coach Danny Flynn went deep into his forward rotation early against the Maineiacs. With more playing time in the offing, forwards such as Biduke and Randy Cameron played as if they were trying to impress Flynn.

“We had lots of youthful energy on our team,” said Flynn. “I thought our kids really responded well. For some other kids, there are going to be increased opportunities and tonight they took the first step in taking advantage of it.”

Lewiston could only take limited advantage when Danick Paquette awoke the crowd when he checked Moncton’s Joseph Tolles through the door and onto the concourse in the Wildcats zone. Stefano Giliati’s shorthanded goal at 8:23 of the third cut the Moncton lead in half, but the physical play backfired when Lucas Labelle got a game misconduct for instigating.

“It could have been the break we had. It’s a long break,” Bourdeau said. “We stuck to the game plan for the most part in the first, then kind of got away from it.”

Harding wouldn’t mind if next season, the Maineiacs got away from Lewiston when the second half of the season begins.

“Maybe it’s better to go on the road,” he said, “because you’re all together, you’re on the road, the focus is there.”