Two mistakes better, and the Lewiston Maineiacs might have squeaked out a win.

Quebec’s speedy forward corps jumped on a pair of Lewiston defensive-zone turnovers in the first period and the Remparts held on to defeat the Maineiacs 2-1 in front of 10,703 at the Pepsi Colisee on Friday.

The Maineiacs capped a furious comeback attempt in the third with a 6-on-4 after pulling goalie Peter Delmas on a late Quebec penalty.

Twice, Lewiston got the puck down low in front of Quebec keeper Kevin Desfosses, and twice the goalie stood his ground, stuffing Stefano Giliati and Stefan Chaput in the waning seconds.

“I’d like to go over and strangle that goalie myself,” Maineiacs’ head coach Ed Harding joked. “He’s a gamer. He just battles and battles and battles. We had a couple of chances at the doorstep, and we couldn’t knock it home.”

Despite the late power play, the Maineiacs were battling penalty problems all night. The Remparts enjoyed 10 power plays in the win, though they scored just once with an extra skater.

“We blew two pucks over the glass, we have to be smarter that way, and we took a few stupid penalties, too,” Harding said. “That will be addressed tomorrow, and we have to be smarter than that. Our guys are doing a tremendous job on the PK, but you’re asking too much if you’re killing 10 of them.”

At least half of Quebec’s 37 shots came on the power play, forcing Delmas to make some spectacular saves against some of the better forwards in the league in Angelo Esposito and Mikhail Stefanovich.

On the other end, Giliati, who scored the Maineiacs’ only goal in the third, had several grade-A chances of his own. Desfosses stopped 33 pucks to earn the win.

Quebec created a turnover off the stick of Chris Tutalo and struck for the game’s first goal just 2:22 into the first period. Maxime Lacroix fired a shot from the top of the right circle that beat a stunned Delmas.

The Remparts upped the lead to 2-0 at 18:53 of the opening frame, this time on the power play as Esposito snuck the puck past Delmas after stealing the puck behind the Maineiacs’ net.

When the teams skated 5-on-5, Lewiston controlled the play, but the Maineiacs spent the better part of the second period killing penalties.

In the third, with 7:28 to play, Giliati broke through with his 25th of the season, curling through three defenders from the half board to slip the puck past Desfosses.

Lewiston continues its three-game road trip today in Chicoutimi. The puck is set to drop at 4 p.m.