After digging themselves a three-goal hole in the third period, the Lewiston Maineiacs’ last-minute attempt at a rally fell just short Friday. Jake Allen stopped 24 of 27 shots, including a flurry of shots late in the third period, to preserve for the Montreal Junior a 4-3 victory over the Maineiacs

Lewiston’s loss spoiled a 38-save effort by 20-year-old keeper Adrien Lemay, who held on in the third while the Maineiacs chipped away at a 4-1 Montreal lead.

“Our best players were not our best players, and that makes it very difficult to win,” Maineiacs’ coach Don MacAdam said. “All of our guys worked hard, but not everyone worked smart enough. We had one defensive line and one forward line in particular who didn’t have a very good night. That’s too many people.

“This was a very good game to learn a couple of very valuable lessons,” MacAdam continued. “One, we need everybody onboard, and two, we need to stick to the system.”

Etienne Brodeur netted his second goal of the season at 14:53 of the third period, just 28 seconds after Louis-Marc Aubry had scored the Junior’s fourth tally. Brodeur banged the puck past Allen to pull the Maineiacs to within two.

Alex Beaton marked his second of the season on a shorthanded bit at 19:02 to leave his team just one short, but the Maineiacs still had to kill a Billy Lacasse penalty for the remainder of the game, making it tough to mount much of a comeback.

“You look back at the game, and that’s easy to do afterwards, but there were some flashes of brilliance,” MacAdam said. “It certainly was too little too late, though. We don’t expect everybody to be perfect every night, but there’s a level of contribution that everyone has to give us for us to succeed.

After battling through a scoreless opening frame, Pier-Olivier Morin netted the first goal of the game on the power play just 1:18 into the second. That lead was short-lived, as Guillaume Asselin netted his own power play goal at 3:23 to draw Montreal even. Toni Ritter slid a rebound past Lemay later in the frame to give the Junior their first lead of the game.

The Maineiacs next skate at home Sunday in a 4 p.m. matinee against Chicoutimi, against which Lewiston earned a 2-1 shootout win on opening night in Saguenay.