SYDNEY, Nova Scotia – Cape Breton had to either be lucky or be perfect to beat Jonathan Bernier on Monday night.

They got a little bit of each.

Chris Culligan scored off the skate of a Lewiston defender in the third period, and Murdock MacLellan tipped home the game-winner on a feed from Jeremy Gouchie at 9:46 of overtime to lift the Screaming Eagles to a series-clinching 2-1 win over the Maineiacs in front of 3,827 at Centre 200.

MacLellan started the winning play from behind Bernier’s cage. He shuffled the puck to Vincent Lavigeur in the left corner.

“I turned my back on the play and slid out to the back door,” MacLellan said.

Lavigeur taped the puck to Gouchie. With open ice, he drew two Lewiston skaters away from the front of the cage and fed the puck between them to MacLellan.

“It seemed like slow-motion,” said MacLellan, whom the Eagles acquired via trade from Moncton. “The guys were giving me a hard time because they said I was celebrating before I shot the puck.”

Lewiston had perhaps its best scoring chance of the game early in overtime, when Guillaume Durand found Todd Chinova alone in the right circle. Chinova tried to one-time the puck and fanned a bit, sending a slower-than-expected puck in on the goalie.

“I knew the guy was there from the beginning,” Cape Breton keeyer Olivier Roy said. “It was a bit bizarre, because it was softer than I expected, so it was a bit of trouble, but I still got it.”

The Maineiacs’ elimination comes one year after taking just 17 games to romp through the playoffs and a President’s Cup title.

Cape Breton, meanwhile, advances to face Halifax in the Eastern Division’s second round.

Bernier stopped everything he could in Game 6, making 37 saves on 39 shots in his final game with the Maineiacs.

“That’s what I’m here to do,” Bernier said. “I thought we lost a little bit of momentum after the first goal, but the guys played hard in front.”

Lewiston didn’t make things easy on itself early. After playing evenly with Cape Breton at even strength for most of the first period, the Maineiacs took a pair of penalties within a minute of each other, giving the Eagles a 5-on-3 for 1:02 late in the period.

“We took a couple of penalties that weren’t the smartest,” Harding said.

The Maineiacs did kill the penalties off, though they lost one of their better shot-blockers in the process after Guillaume Durand took a slapshot from the left point off the back of the right ankle, near where the skate boot meets the calf muscle.

“Our guys played really hard with a short bench, that’s for sure,” Harding said.

Durand returned late in the second and didn’t appear to have any ill effects from the block, and the Maineiacs, for better than 16 minutes, played solid, 5-on-5 hockey.

Jakub Bundil gave the visitors a 1-0 lead with a goal that looked just like his goal in Game 5. That one was short-handed, though. This one came in a perfect breakout situation. Michael Ward fed the puck up the left boards in the center zone to Bundil, who sped into the left circle. Bundil has Billy Lacasse in the center of the slot, but elected to shoot, and beat goaltender Olivier Roy five-hole.

“I was more expecting him to pass the puck,” Roy said. “I made the move too early.”

With 2:15 to play in the third, Ward stepped into a check at the right point and leveled Chris Culligan. Officials whistled Ward for a five-minute charging major, and assessed a two-minute minor to Culligan for roughing after the fact, setting up the Cape Breton power play to begin the third.

The Maineiacs stayed in Sydney on Monday night and will return to Lewiston Tuesday evening.