A slow start and a bad bounce in the final four minutes are all that stood between the Lewiston Maineiacs and a weekend sweep through the Maritimes.

One night after an inspired win over Cape Breton, the Maineiacs fell Saturday to the Moncton Wildcats, 5-4.

“We didn’t battle hard early,” Maineiacs’ coach Ed Harding said. “We weren’t ready to play in the first eight minutes.”

Moncton scored a pair of early goals to set the Maineiacs on their heels, but Danick Paquette erased the deficit on his own, getting one goal in the latter half of the first period, and another early in the second to even things up.

Matt Bourdeau scored just 1:07 after Paquette’s second to give Lewiston a 3-2 lead.

“I was proud of the boys for the way they battled back,” Harding said.

But Moncton tied the game just before the end of the second, getting a goal from Matthew Brenton at 17:46 to kill the Maineiacs’ momentum.

Moncton and Lewiston traded goals in the third, with Moncton taking a 4-3 lead before Lucas Labelle evened things up at the 13:39 mark.

Lewiston nearly escaped a late penalty to Guillaume Durand, but the Wildcats’ Matt Brown shot his only goal at 16:12 to lift his team to the win.

Lewiston returns home for a pair of games this week, starting with Wednesday’s tilt against Drummondville.