A slow start and an off night defensively were too much for the Lewiston Maineiacs to overcome in their third game in six nights away from home.

Michael Bournival had a goal and two assists and Pierre-Alexandre Vandall added three helpers as the Shawinigan Cataractes pulled away from Lewiston with four goals in the second period to earn a 6-1 win over the visiting Maineiacs in front of 2,925 at the Centre Bionest.

“We didn’t come out like we needed to come out in the first period,” Maineiacs’ coach J.F. Houle said. “I thought we played well in the second period, actually, I thought we outworked them, but we need to play defense better in front of (goalie) Adrien (Lemay).”

Lemay, a 20-year-old netminder, has been the team’s backbone all season, but he allowed an uncharacteristic six goals on 33 shots in the loss Tuesday.

“We may have had an off night, I don’t know, but the bottom line is we need to be better on defense,” Houle said. “He’s made enough big, key saves all year for this team, this loss isn’t on him.”

On the other end, Shawinigan’s Marc-Antoine Gelinas was solid when he needed to be, turning aside 28 shots in the final two periods, including several solid Lewiston chances on a 5-on-3 in the third period.

“When we put pressure on him, he made the stops he needed to make,” Houle said. “We tried to generate offense in the third period, but he was a good goalie, and they played well defensively, limited our chances.”

The Cataractes jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period. Pierre-Olivier Morin cut the deficit to one with a goal early in the second, but Shawinigan struck for goals 1:27 apart to up the lead to 4-1. The Cats closed out the second with another pair of quick goals in the stanza’s final five minutes, chasing Lemay to the bench in favor of youngster Jordan Kennedy, who faced just five shots and stopped all of them.

Lewiston has a pair of home games this weekend against Shawinigan, one each on Friday and Saturday nights at 7 p.m.

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