Stefano Giliati became the Lewiston Maineiacs’ all-time leading scorer Sunday afternoon, but it wasn’t enough to lift his team to a season-ending win.

Joey Haddad had two goals and an assist and Jordan Clendenning clocked in with three helpers to lift the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles to a 5-3 win over the Maineiacs in front of 4,450 at Centre 200 on Sunday.

“I was extremely embarrassed after the first period,” Lewiston head coach Ed Harding said. “I let the boys know that. They came out and were really committed in the second, and then we felt like doing some stupid things and taking the third off.”

Kirk Rafuse started his third game of the season for Lewiston, and suffered his first loss, making 31 saves on 36 shots.

“We felt like we owed it to him, he’s done a lot for us,” Harding said. “The fact that we couldn’t move down or up helped make that decision.”

Giliati passed former Maineiac Mathieu Aubin with an assist on a Chris Tutalo power play goal in the first period, his 107th career regular-season assist and 191st career regular-season point.

Giliati then equaled Aubin in the goals column with his 40th of the season and 85th of his career in the second on a turn-around slapshot that fooled Cape Breton keeper Olivier Roy.

“I’m not a big stats guy, but it’s something to be proud of,” Harding said. “That’s why he was in the lineup at all.”

Lewiston and Cape Breton played twice this past weekend, and should be plenty used to each other when they meet again this weekend in the first round of the playoffs. With an Acadie-Bathurst win in Newfoundland earlier Sunday, the coaching staff knew before the start of the game that both teams were locked into their respective playoff positions.

“We already had our lineups in, though,” Harding said.

Harding decided to rest Stefan Chaput and Tom Michalik anyway.

“That was more of a democratic decision,” Harding said. “We talked about it with the players and together decided who should sit.”

Lewiston completes its fifth regular season with a 37-26-5-2 mark, earning 81 points and placing fifth in the Eastern Division.

Last season, the Maineiacs won 50 games in their best finish. This year’s 37 victory finish is second, one more than the 36 Lewiston earned in 2005-06.

“There’s been a lot of changes this year,” Harding said. “We had the potential for a President’s Cup hangover, we talked about losing our goaltender for a while, we lost a couple of other guys that would have been important players here to score some goals, and I think (the team) did one heck of a job, and I’m proud of them.”

In Sunday’s game, Lewiston fell behind 3-1 after the first period. The Maineiacs clawed back to even the score at three with a goal in the second and another early in the third, only to fall into penalty trouble in the final frame and hand the momentum back to the Eagles.

Cape Breton scored twice down the stretch and outshot Lewiston 17-5 in the final frame to skate off with the win.

The Maineiacs open the playoffs with games at Cape Breton tentatively scheduled for Friday and Saturday, March 21 and 22.