LEWISTON — Another two-goal lead, another wasted opportunity for the Lewiston Maineiacs, who have struggled of late not only to hold a lead, but to score goals at all.

This time, the heartbreak came courtesy of a third-period penalty shot.

Dave Labrecque cashed in on his free chance at 3:54 of the third period after Lewiston defenseman Matt Boyle hooked him from behind on a breakaway chance and Charles-Olivier Roussel buried a power-play goal with 2:29 to play to lift the Shawinigan Cataractes to a 5-3 come-from-behind win over the Maineiacs in front of 2,400 at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee on Saturday, the Cats’ third consecutive win in as many games against Lewiston in five days.

“It’s not the best way to win hockey games, coming from behind,” Shawinigan coach Eric Veilleux said. “It’s probably not the way we want to be trying to win hockey games in the playoffs, but for now, we’ll take the wins when we can get them.”

“I thought we worked hard tonight, and I feel really bad for the guys,” Lewiston coach J.F Houle said. “The bottom line, though, is it’s still a loss. We have to find a way to win these games.”

Lewiston led 3-1 to begin the second period, the second consecutive night the Maineiacs held a lead against the Cataractes.

But they couldn’t hold on — again.

Pierre-Alexandre Vandall pulled the Cataractes to within one early in the second, Philippe Paradis tied it late in the middle frame, and Labrecque’s penalty shot completed the Shawinigan comeback in the third. Roussel’s power-play tally gave the visitors some breathing room in the game’s final minutes.

“When you have a cushion like that, you still don’t want to give them another goal to make it close,” Veilleux said. “We made sure we did the little things right to secure the win.”

Lewiston’s loss is the team’s fifth loss in six games, and third consecutive defeat on home ice.

Etienne Brodeur netted his 15th of the year just 31 seconds into the game to get the Maineiacs out in front. He swatted a rebound past Shawinigan starter Gabriel Girard after a shot from Pierre-Olivier Morin forced a rebound off Girard’s pads to the left side of the crease.

Matthew Bissonette added to the lead at 6:35 when he finished a 2-on-1 on a saucer feed from Stefan Fournier in the low slot over a diving Shawinigan defender.

“Ahen you start off that well, you don’t want to let off the gas,” Houle said. “Good teams, they keep going to bury their opponent. We ave to learn how to do that.”

Gabriel Lemieux’s shot from the left point struck Lewiston defender Sam Finn’s stick and tipped into the net behind Lemay at 10:38 to pull the Cataractes within a goal, but Bissonette and Fournier struck again in the final minute of the first. This time, Fournier collected a cross-ice feed from Bissonette as he crossed the blue line and deked Girard to the ice before lofting a backhander into the cage, re-establishing the Maineiacs’ two-goal advantage.

The Cataractes pulled Girard in favor of Marc-Antoine Gelinas to begin the second, and erased their deficit. Pierre-Alexandre Vandall scored early in the period to pull his squad within a goal, finishing a scramble in front with a tipped shot that found the top left corner of the cage, and on the power play in the final two minutes, Philippe Paradis banged home a feed from Michael Bournival in front to square the game at three goals apiece.

Boyle got his stick up on Labrecque as the latter bore down on Lemay, but the Shawinigan attacker managed a good, hard and clean shot against the Maineiacs’ netminder. Officials insisted anyway on the penalty shot, which Labrecque buried with a shifty backhand deke between Lemay’s legs.

The Maineiacs continue their schedule Wednesday with a home matchup against Atlantic Division juggernaut Moncton at 7 p.m. at the Colisee.