LEWISTON — With the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s mid-season trade period in the rear-view mirror Thursday night, the Lewiston Maineiacs put on an offensive display that rivals any in the team’s seven-year history, and a pair of players who once played for Acadie-Bathurst were instrumental in helping the home team take the Titan to task.

Their former team reeling in its second game in as many nights, Stefan Fournier continued his red hot play with a hat trick and Jess Tanguy added a goal and a pair of assists to help lift the Maineiacs to a 9-4 victory at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee.

“The first game, I had a lot more nerves playing them in Bathurst,” Fournier said. “Coming over here was any other game, and I worked hard, kept it simple and came out with three goals.”

Francis Beauvillier also scored a pair and Michael Chaput registered three assists for the Maineiacs, who won for the fifth time in six games under new coach J.F. Houle.

“Everybody connected tonight; we capitalized on our chances,” Houle said. “We didn’t in the first, but we did in the second. It’s nice when you can get a little offensive flare like that.”

Lewiston netted six goals in the second period alone, the most goals Lewiston has scored in a single period since putting up seven against Rimouski on Oct. 22, 2004. The Maineiacs’ 56 shots were the most by the team in a game this season by 10, and the second-most in the league this season by any team.

“They were first to the puck. J.F. has them working hard and the team that works hard always wins,” Bathurst coach Ron Choules said. “They deserved the win. They moved very well tonight and we just weren’t up to their level.”

Jonathan Lessard got things going quickly for the Titan, who drew the game’s first penalty and capitalized on the subsequent man-advantage. Lessard parked in the left circle and waited as Ryan McKiernan threaded a pass to Eric Faille, who redirected the puck back to Lessard. The 18-year-old winger snapped the puck short side past Lewiston keeper Adrien Lemay to put Acadie-Bathurst on top by a goal. 

After trading penalties through the middle part of the frame, Lewiston ramped up its intensity in the latter stages of the first period. The extra aggression turned into the Maineiacs’ first goal of the contest. Chaput drove hard to the left corner and slid the puck back to Pierre-Olivier Morin, setting up a 2-on-1 down low with Morin and Fournier. Morin kept the puck, used Fournier as a decoy and beat Bathurst keeper Guillaume Nadeau five-hole to knot the game back up at 1-1.

In the second, Lewiston exploded. Beauvillier potted his eighth of the season at 3:01, Fournier scored a pair at 5:07 and 6:45, and after a penalty-shot goal by the Titan, Tanguy slipped the puck into the cage for his first career goal. Captain Billy Lacasse upped the lead to 6-2 at 10:51, and Etienne Brodeur traded goals with the Titan’s Vincent Arseneau to finish the wild period.

“Every time they scored, we scored back,” Houle said. “That’s what we need to do day in and day out to win more games. We had a lot of speed. This team is built on speed right now.”

Bathurst tacked on their fourth and final goal early in the third to pull within three, but the Maineiacs iced things with Beauvillier’s second of the night on a fourth-chance rebound and Fournier’s hat trick tally on a dipsy-do deke at the top of the crease.

Lewiston is back in action Friday night as the Maineiacs host former coach Clem Jodoin and the Rimouski Oceanic.