LEWISTON — There was never a whisper of doubt in the Lewiston Maineiacs’ locker room Thursday night.

Even after stalwart defenseman Eric Gelinas was ejected from the game with an intent-to-injure slashing penalty. Even after the Maineiacs surrendered the first three goals of the game to a team to which they’d lost 11 times in 12 tries last season.

“It’s the attitude, it’s the leaders in the room,” forward Alex Beaton said. “When we went into the room down … everyone believed we were going to come back. Everyone knew if we worked hard and stayed disciplined, we had a chance. We believed.”

Beaton’s stellar toe-drag move to the backhand side on the second Lewiston shot in the shootout lifted the Maineiacs to a 5-4 win over previously unbeaten Drummondville at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee on Thursday, keeping Lewiston’s perfect home record intact at 4-0.

“I figured, it worked a few times against (Lewiston goalie Adrien) Lemay in practice, so it had to be a pretty good move,” Beaton said. “I saw (Sebastien) Trudeau go to the forehand, so I figured it would be best to go the other way.”

Lemay, Lewiston’s 20-year-old backstop, stuffed Jonathan Brunelle on the Volts’ third shootout attempt to preserve the victory. He made 34 saves on the night, and stopped two of three in the shootout.

“He tried to fake a shot, but I was out a lot,” Lemay said. “I knew he would deke to the right or left, so I just tried to follow him with my body.”

Things didn’t start out so rosy for the home team. The Volts picked up where they left off last season against the Maineiacs, banging home a pair of goals in the first 7:15 to take an early 2-0 lead. They made it 3-0 with their vaunted power play as Brunelle tipped home a blast from the point by Ryan McKiernan at 13:12.

“I didn’t think we were especially good in the first period,” Maineiacs’ coach Don MacAdam said. “That was mainly because we weren’t moving the puck and allowing ourselves to skate the way we can.”

On their end, the Voltigeurs got comfortable — perhaps a bit too comfortable.

“This team, they thought it was going to be 11-0 again (like last year),” Drummondville coach Mario Duhamel said. “Lewiston is a different team this year, they work hard all the time. We knew that starting off the season that it would be different.”

Pier-Olivier Morin got one back for the Maineiacs with 20 seconds to play in the frame, picking the top left corner from 10 feet and clanging the pipe over Antoine Tardif ‘s right shoulder, sending the Maineiacs into the locker room with positive energy.

“Morin’s goal got us going in the room,” forward Etienne Brodeur said.

“There wasn’t much said, if anything, but we all knew we could win this game,” Beaton added.

Lewiston righted the territorial ship in the second, and earned a bit of puck luck along the way. Sebastien Trudeau scored off his knee after a pass from left to right bounced into him. He tried to transition the puck to his stick, missed and it bounced past Tardif and into the cage. Brodeur earned his third of the season when he fanned on a shot intended for the top right corner. The puck slid under Tardif and into the cage.

“If you play hard and stay after it, you earn bounces sometimes,” MacAdam said.

The teams traded goals in the third period. Billy Lacasse gave the Maineiacs their only lead on a feed from Alexis Piette just 1:16 into the third, and the Volts evened things up at 4:50 with their second power play goal of the game.

Gelinas, meanwhile, was assessed a match penalty at 5:57 of the first after he swung around and smacked Ondrej Palat in the face with his stick as Palat sat on the ice after losing his balance in a stick battle with Gelinas.

“It’s too bad, because we could really use him,” MacAdam said. “We need to get Eric back on track and get him playing the way he was in training camp.”

Lewiston’s next test at home is Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m. against Patrick Roy’s Quebec Remparts at the Colisee.