LEWISTON – It wasn’t all that easy for Val d’Or coach Eric Lavigne to decide which of his players should take the team’s attempts during the shootout.

“We haven’t been having much success in the shootouts this season,” Lavigne said. “I was worried about which players I chose.”

Alexandre Monahan shoveled the puck – and Lewiston keeper Adrien Lemay – into the net for the Foreurs’ first shootout goal, and Matthew Lachaine banked his chance in off Lemay and off the post to lift their team to a 6-5 win over the Lewiston Maineiacs in front of 2,058 at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee.

“We are happy to be leaving here with the two points,” Lavigne said. “For us right now, any points we get are good points.”

The Maineiacs salvaged a point in the loss, giving them 33 points on the season.

But it still didn’t feel too good.

“I don’t know if disappointment is the right thing right now,” Lewiston coach Don MacAdam said. “It should be embarrassbment. Less than seven minutes left in the game, and you have a three-goal lead? It’d be nice to say we had key guys hurt and their guys elevated, but we had guys who struggled from the beginning of the game.”

With 7:00 to play in the final frame, Lewiston led 5-2 on two goals from Billy Lacasse and one each from Max Gratchev, Garrett Clarke and Tomy Dery.

Sasha Famin struck at 13:09 to pull the Foreurs within two at 5-3, Keven Guerette-Charland kicked the puck to himself and then banged the puck across the line at 14:51 to cut the lead in half, and Samuel Morneau capped the comeback with a snipe to Lemay’s glove side 11 seconds later.

“Our defense did a great job of moving the puck the first 50 minutes,” MacAdam said. “Then they started hesitating. He who hesitates is lost, and he who hesitates with the puck loses the puck.”

With his pair of goals, Lacasse inched closer to that magical 20-goal mark, while Gratchev increased his team lead with his 24th of the season.

The Foreurs, meanwhile, are trying to claw their way back into a playoff position. They currently sit on the outside, seven points back of Lewiston, which holds the 16th and final playoff playoff position.

Val d’Or has had a home-heavy schedule, and its trip to Lewiston was just the Foreur’s second trip of more than an hour in since the last time they were in Lewiston on Dec. 14.

“It was good team-building for us, after we made so many trades,” Lavigne said. “We have 19 losses this year by one goal, and it’s nice to win a game by one goal.”

The teams see-sawed in the early going. Lacasse put the home team on top 1-0 at 9:51 of the first, only to have Jonathan Hazen even things up 46 seconds into the second frame.

Tomy Dery potted his first career goal at 9:37 of the second, and Val d’Or’s Cedrick Henley again evened things up later in the second.

Clarke’s goal with 1:22 to play in the second appeared to be the spark the Maineiacs needed. They increased their lead to 4-2 on Lacasse’s second at 4:37 of the third, and made it 5-2 on Gratchev’s tally at 9:04.

The Maineiacs will host the Montreal Junior on Saturday night, and will celebrate their 200th home game with special jerseys, which they’ll give away at the end of the game.