Broken down and tired, the Lewiston Maineiacs limped home Sunday night into Monday morning with only a point to show for a four-game, five-night road trip through the Abitibi region of Quebec.

Marco Scandella, fresh off a silver medal at the World Junior Championships, and Vincent Couture netted first-period goals and Val d’Or hung on from there, posting a 2-1 victory over the visiting Maineiacs in front of 1,625 at the Air Creebec Centre, the Foreurs’ second one-goal victory in as many nights over Lewiston.

“We’re getting there, we had some chances to score at the end to tie the game,” Lewiston coach J.F. Houle said. “Adrien (Lemay) made some key saves, especially in the third period, to keep us in the game and give us a chance, to keep us alive, but we just couldn’t put the puck in the net.”

The loss is the team’s fourth in as many games on the road trip, though the Maineiacs did earn a point in Saturday’s shootout loss to Val d’Or.

“It’s tough to lose by just one goal,” Houle said. “It’s tough because you can see it. They’re trying so hard to get that one goal.”

Scandella’s goal, the defenseman’s eighth at 8:18 of the first period, came with the Foreurs on the power play. Couture’s, 4:08 later in the same period, also came with an extra skater.

“We took four or five penalties in the first period,” Houle said. “We can’t be taking that many penalties. I kind of laid into them after the first period and talked about that, and they came out in the second and third periods and turned it around, played much better.”

The Maineiacs did get one back when Sam Carrier blasted a shot through traffic and past Val d’Or keeper Rafaele D’Orso on a power play at 4:20 of the second period.

“The guys were a bit tired,” Houle said, “but we put a lot of pressure on in the third period. Four games in five nights, that’s never easy.”

Lewiston was also playing a bit shorthanded. Mathieu Brisebois played hurt and played sparingly on defense after being knocked out of Saturday’s game. Zachary Evans-Renaud, another defenseman, was already hurt.

Meanwhile, Lemay was rock solid — again. He stopped 27 of 29 shots in the loss, including the final 21 he saw.

After a nearly 14-hour ride home overnight Sunday into Monday, the Maineiacs will enjoy a few days off before hosting a red-hot Rouyn-Noranda squad at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee on Friday and Saturday.

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