LEWISTON – The Lewiston Maineiacs began Tuesday night by honoring rookie Etienne Brodeur for being named to the league’s mid-season all-rookie team.

Brodeur showed everyone why.

The 17-year-old scored twice and added an assist – all in the first period – as the Lewiston Maineiacs raced out to a 4-0 lead and hung on for a more-thrilling-than-it-should-have-been 5-4 win over the Baie-Comeau Drakkar in front of 1,592 at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee.

“We hung in there and we battled hard,” Maineiacs’ coach Ed Harding said. “It’s nice to have the other team pull their goalie for once. At least we were protecting a lead. It’s two points, and we had to prove we were a better team than Baie-Comeau. Obviously we have to keep trying to climb the ladder. As many points as we can get, we need. We’re fighting to get into the playoffs, and then we’ll take it from there.”

The win snapped a seven-game losing streak, during which the Maineiacs had dropped five games by one goal, and the other two by a pair.

Tuesday’s game also marked the first game during which the Maineiacs weren’t whistled for a single penalty in team history.

Baie-Comeau, meanwhile, dropped its fourth consecutive game, and some of the the Drakkar players may have been thinking more about trade rumors circling the team than the game itself.

“For sure, the players hear about things like that, and it would be naive to think they don’t think about it,” Baie-Comeau assistant coach Stephane Hains said. “That’s part of the game, though.”

The Maineiacs, meanwhile, continue to listen to trade offers, but nothing, according to Harding, is close to being completed. The league’s trade deadline is at noon on Thursday.

“There’s some calls coming in, of course,” Harding said. “Teams will say, ‘Oh, we can do this big deal or that big deal,’ but we’re pretty happy with the team we have right now, honestly.”

The first period at the Colisee on Tuesday couldn’t have been scripted any better by Harding himself. Brodeur fired the puck between Cousineau’s legs at 5:04 after a hard forecheck to put the Maineiacs on top, 1-0.

He helped set up Billy Lacasse’s 16th of the season less than three minutes later on a backhand feed from the left side of the cage. Lacasse redirected the puck into the open net to put Lewiston on top 2-0.

The Maineiacs continued to put pressure on the Drakkar, and earned the period’s only power play. Brodeur potted his second of the game with 41 seconds to play in the frame after a Max Gratchev shot deflected off of Danick Paquette in front right to Brodeur’s stick. He found the empty net behind Cousineau to put the home team on top 3-0.

“Those goals, they still count,” Brodeur said. “The line, with (Marc) Bourgeois and Billy (Lacasse), has been working really well, and we’re getting more comfortable together.”

Pier-Olivier Morin made it 4-0 at 9:37 of the second when he turned and fired from the right circle, surprising Cousineau with the floater.

The Drakkar struck for a controversial goal at the 13:42 mark, as Gabriel Bourque appeared to kick the puck past Lemay. The replay was inconclusive, though, and the goal stood as called on the ice.

The Drakkar’s elation didn’t last long, though – 16 second to be exact.

That’s when Dominic Savoie converted a quick pass from Nick Huard into his second tally of the season to put Lewiston back in front by four.

The Maineiacs let down their guard a bit in the third, allowing three goals in 5:50, but the Drakkar never got the equalizer.

“We didn’t do the right things in the third period,” Harding said. “We tried to be a little too cute, and a bad bounce here or there, but we hung in there.”

Lewiston’s next five games are on the road, and the Maineiacs return to home ice Tuesday, Jan. 20 against Drummondville.