LEWISTON – As first goals go, Garrett Clarke’s might rank among the most bizarre.

Clarke took a short feed from goaltender Peter Delmas in his own zone and began to lead the Lewiston Maineiacs on a power play breakout. As scripted, Clarke crossed the red line and fired the puck into the zone and turned away.

The puck squeezed through goaltender Antonio Mastropietro’s pads and trickled into the net.

“I didn’t even see it,” Clarke said. “The lights went out, and I knew it must have gone in.”

From the bench, backup goalie Phillip Wright yelled to him, “Dude, you just scored.”

Clarke raised his stick.

His goal, at 11:15 of the second period, evened the game at three. Just past the midway point of the third, Clarke set up the winning goal on another power play, lifting the Maineiacs to a 4-3 win over Victoriaville in front of 2,001 at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee.

Danick Paquette, in his first full game with the team, tipped home an Eric Gelinas blast for the winner and finished a pretty pass from Alex Beaton in the first for his first two goals of the season.

“This is the first time we can play together on a line this year, but I thought it worked really well,” Paquette said. “With Gratchev’s speed, it makes us all faster.”

The Tigres, meanwhile, played well – some might even say well enough to steal the game from Lewiston. But still missing starter Kevin Poulin between the pipes, Victoriaville’s tandem of Mastropietro and Loic Boivin weren’t good enough.

“I can’t say anything bad about the skaters,” Victoriaville coach Yannick Jean said. “To win games on the road, you need good goaltending. We didn’t get that tonight.”

Boivin relieved Mastropietro after Clarke’s goal, and fared a bit better, giving up only the final goal.

The Maineiacs gave the smallish crowd a reason to cheer early, busting out of the gate with a pair of goals in the opening 10 minutes.

Matt Bourdeau notched his second of the season, banging home a rebound on a third try in front at 5:25, and Paquette connected for his first in two games back on a great set-up from Max Gratchev and Alex Beaton.

“I kind of thought Danick would hit me back door,” Gratchev said, “but it was a great pass (from Beaton) and the net was open. It was a good goal.”

Victoriaville used its only timeout to settle things down after Lewiston’s second goal.

It worked.

The Tigres’ Olivier Hinse notched his third of the season at 16:31 as a power play expired, and Keven Dupont made it 2-2 with seven seconds to play in the opening frame on a slapshot from the blue line through a crowd in front.

The latter goal was nearly twice as costly, as just moments before that, Gratchev went down after blocking a shot and stayed on the ice, writhing in pain, until he was helped off the ice.

“That’s part of the game,” Gratchev said. “You have to do that to win hockey games.”

Gratchev returned early in the second, but so did Victoriaville.

The Tigres scored a third straight goal, this one at 4:06 of the second period off the stick of David Cliche, and took a one-goal lead.

Lewiston will travel to Cape Breton and Halifax for a grueling three-in-three weekend next week, and the Maineiacs return to home ice Friday, Oct. 10, to face Drummondville.