A bit road-weary and plenty angry after a lopsided loss to Saint John on Monday, the Lewiston Maineiacs mustered up what energy they had left Tuesday and fired back at the Sea Dogs in a home game played at Fredericton, New Brunswick’s Willie O’Ree Place.

Stefan Fournier collected two goals and three points and Eric Gelinas had one of his best games of the preseason with a goal and a helper to lead the Maineiacs to a 6-1 victory over Saint John in their final preseason tuneup of the summer.

“One of things we saw and we were most impressed with is how hard these kids battled tonight when they were so tired,” Maineiacs’ coach Don MacAdam said. “This was their fourth game in six nights, and they played very well.”

The biggest difference from the night before, MacAdam said, wasn’t necessarily in goal — Adrien Lemay stopped 35 of 36 shots Wednesday — but rather on the front end.

“We just didn’t play well, our forwards had a hard time (Tuesday) night,” MacAdam said. “It was much different (Wednesday). They battled hard along the boards and won a lot more battles, which is something this team is going to need to do well this season if we want to win games.”

Eric Gelinas got things started early for Lewiston with his first of the postseason 5:38 into the opening frame. Pier-Olivier Morin tacked on another in the later stages of the period to run the Maineiacs’ lead to 2-0.

Stefan Fournier added a goal in the second, a period during which Lewiston spent much of the time shorthanded.

“It felt like we were shorthanded the whole time,” MacAdam said, “even with a 5-on-3 against, and our defense played well, and Adrien was good when he needed to be.” 

Fournier made it 4-0 Lewiston early in the third on the power play, and Matt Boyle earned his first as a Maineiac on a feed from Fournier. Kevin Gagne broke up Lemay’s shutout bid with 2:46 to play on a Sea Dogs power play, only to see Samuel Grenache tack on the final goal of the game with less than a minute to go.

Lewiston has completed its preseason, and will open the regular season with a road game at Chicoutimi on Friday, Sept. 11. The team’s first home game is Friday, Sept. 18, against Baie-Comeau at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee.