LEWISTON – The packaging was a bit tattered, but the gift wrapped inside was perfect.

Max Gratchev recorded his second Quebec Major Junior League hat trick and Philip Wright came within three minutes of his first career shutout, stopping 32 of 33 shots to lead Lewiston to a 3-1 win over the Val d’Or Foreurs in front of 1,799 at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee on Sunday.

“I haven’t had many hat tricks in my career,” Gratchev said. “I was going for it, for sure, but I wanted the team to win more than anything.”

The Maineiacs rebounded well after a disappointing loss to Rouyn-Noranda on Friday, during which Lewiston was outshot, outbattled and just plain outplayed.

Wright, meanwhile, saw plenty of action early, thanks to four Val d’Or power plays, including an extended 5-on-3.

“He’s been playing his you-know-what off,” Lewiston coach Ed Harding said of Wright. “He deserves to play because he comes out and practices hard every day.”

The Maineiacs’ backup was up to the task though, turning aside all 14 shots he faced.

Gratchev was again an offensive spark, scoring his 14th, 15th and 16th goals of the season to give him 23 points in his last 13 games.

“He creates his own offense out there,” Harding said. “I was a bit worried about him being a little bit tired. We’d like to see him get the empty-netter, but first and foremost, you have to worry about winning the game.”

Lewiston spent most of the middle part of the first period on the penalty kill, and survived unscathed as Val d’Or struggled to form any sort of cohesive attack.

“We took too many penalties in the first period,” Harding said. “I’ll give our PK a lot of credit, they played pretty well.”

The second half of the frame saw plenty of pushing, shoving and hits behind the play from both teams, most of which the referee missed.

The disparity in shots – 14-5 in favor of Val d’Or – was skewed due to the Foreurs’ power play opportunities, and many of them came from the outside, but Wright did turn aside a few tougher shots in the period.

“You get the feel for the puck early, you get the feel for the rest of the game,” Wright said.

Early in the second, neither team put together much on offense, though Wright came up big with a pair of saves on two Val d’Or breakaways, one each from Marc-Andre Julien and Maxim Guerin.

Later, on an extended 5-on-3, Gratchev sniped the top right corner from 20 feet out after curling in from the left circle to put the Maineiacs in front, 1-0.

Gratchev stole the puck down low less than three minutes later and waited for D’Orso to commit before roofing the puck past the prone netminder for his second of the period, giving Lewiston a cushion at 2-0.

The Foreurs made things interesting when Boston Bruins’ prospect Maxime Sauve fired a wrister past Wright at the 17-minute mark to pull his team within one.

But Gratchev capped the hat trick with his third of the game to put things out of reach.

“We’re looking forward to the second half of the year,” Gratchev said. “It was nice to send the fans off with a win.”

Lewiston plays its final two games before the holiday break on the road, with a Thursday date in Saint John, followed by a Friday contest in Moncton against the Atlantic-leading Wildcats.