LEWISTON – The Moncton Wildcats have made a nice spot for themselves on top of the Atlantic Division standings this season, perhaps a year earlier than most people expected .

Lewiston has languished at the bottom of the Telus Central, and is fighting for its playoff life.

Yet, as usual, when the two teams met at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee on Wednesday, the pace of the game and the tension felt more like a clash of Quebec Major Junior Hockey League titans.

Three different Moncton players scored power-play goals and Nicola Riopel made 17 saves to lead the Wildcats to a tight-checking and hard-hitting 3-1 win over the Maineiacs.

“They were trying to be as physical as they could with us,” Moncton coach Danny Flynn said. “They got into some penalty trouble later in the game, and we were able to take advantage of that, but for a while there, they had us on the ropes.”

“I thought, 5-on-5, we did a pretty good job against them,” Lewiston coach Don MacAdam said. “We got into some penalty trouble and that’s what hurt us. In our last few games, we’ve played the top three power plays in the league, so you can’t afford to give that many chances.

The teams have played some doozies over the years. Lewiston has had its greatest success against Moncton when Moncton has been at its best, and vice versa.

The 2,955 in attendance at the Colisee represented the team’s largest home crowd to date.

Lewiston took a 1-0 lead on an odd goal. The Maineiacs broke through center with a pair of passes, the last one ending up on Danick Paquette’s stick. The 18-year-old captain fired a quick snapper on net, and Riopel misjudged the direction and level of the shot. The puck struck the keeper underneath his blocker and deflected into the net.

Moncton didn’t waste much time getting that one back, and that, too, was a bit different. On the power play, David Savard fired a slapper from the left point that bounced hard off the back boards, hit Lewiston defenseman Patrick Cusack in the skate and bounced past Lemay and into the cage.

“(Riopel) hasn’t given many of those up this year, and I know after that went in, the boys wanted to get that one back pretty quickly,” Flynn said.

Moncton owned the second period thanks to a rash of penalties called against Lewiston. The Wildcats fired 17 pucks at Lemay, most of them coming on the five different power plays Moncton enjoyed in the frame.

“He’s been overworked lately, both in number of games played and the shots he’s faced,” MacAdam said. “He’s done a great job.”

Two of those shots found their way through Lemay, the first on a Tomy Joly tip in front, and the second on a Scott Brannon shot from a tough angle at the left side of the net.

The teams traded power play chances in the third, with neither finding much success.

Lewiston returns to home ice Saturday against Rimouski, and plays a Sunday matinee against Victoriaville, during which the team will wear commemorative Maine Nordiques jerseys.