LEWISTON —It wasn’t pretty and at times it was downright choppy, with Moncton and Lewiston trading trips to the penalty box one after the other through the early part of the final period.

Through the wave of calls, many deserved, others questionable at best for both sides, the Maineiacs persevered, playing one of their better games of the season. And despite allowing four goals to one of the league’s top teams and nearly blowing a three-goal lead, Lewiston escaped Wednesday night’s meeting with the Wildcats, earning a 5-4 win at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee on the back of three power play tallies and a 36-save effort from iron-man goaltender Adrien Lemay.

“They were men on the other side,” Lewiston captain Billy Lacasse said. “They’re a team going after the Memorial Cup this year, and they show it. They’re a big, strong team. It was a good effort for us.”

Moncton’s staff, meanwhile, was unapologetic.

“We got what we deserved tonight,” Moncton coach Danny Flynn said. “I would say that was a very disappointing performance by our team. It was unacceptable, and we got what we deserved.”

Lewiston made it hard on Moncton through the neutral zone, sending forwards streaking out of the defensive zone to created 2-on-1s and 3-on-2s all night. The Wildcats’ defense had a hard time keeping up.

“We’ve been running that all year, and other team’s haven’t been defending it,” Maineiacs’ forward Matthew Bissonette said. “It catches them off guard.”

Bissonette, who began the year in Moncton, continued to produce points at a torrid pace. Since arriving in a trade from Chicoutimi, where he played briefly after Moncton, Bissonette has notched 18 points in 14 games for the Maineiacs. He added a pair of assists Wednesday. Jess Tanguy, Michael Chaput, Pierre-Olivier Morin, Lacasse and Sam Henley scored for Lewiston.

Nicolas Deschamps registered a hat trick for the Wildcats.

Some bad news came out of the victory for Lewiston, though. The Maineiacs lost Stefan Fournier and Jean-Francois Plante to injuries early in the second period. Neither returned to the ice. Plante is considered day-to-day, but Fournier’s injury is likely much more serious. He left the ice with the team’s trainer stabilizing his right forearm, which had swollen quickly after contact in the center zone.

“We’ll have to wait and see exactly what happened, and how badly he’s hurt, but it doesn’t look good,” Lewiston coach J.F. Houle said.

Lewiston stunned Moncton early. Tanguy scored on the Maineiacs’ first power-play opportunity of the game, just 6:13 into the contest, to put the home team on top by a goal, and Lacasse made it 2-0 less than two minutes later with a top shelf wrister over goalie Shane Owen after Etienne Brodeur lost the handle on a 3-on-1, leaving the puck for Lacasse between the circles.

Moncton didn’t waste any time getting on the board in the second. Deschamps, the league’s leading scorer, finished a power play chance at 3:39 of the middle frame to pull his squad within one.

After missing a chance with its second power play of the night, Lewiston capitalized on another odd-man rush when Sam Henley finished a 2-on-1 chance, batting the puck out of the air on a feed from the left boards by Tanguy.

The teams traded power play chances — and power-play goals — in a wild third period.

Moncton began the frame on a two-man advantage and scored to pull to within a goal at 3-2. Five penalties later (four of which were called against Moncton), Lewiston made it 4-2 on Chaput’s 22nd of the season. The Maineiacs struck again at 7:06, again on the power play, on a bang-bang finish by Morin.

Moncton crawled back into the game on a pair of unassisted tallies from Deschamps, who twice followed his own rebound against Lemay by pushing the puck — and the keeper — into the cage.

Lewiston will play twice more at home this weekend, once Friday night at 7 p.m. against division rival Victoriaville, and again Sunday at 4 p.m. against the Quebec Remparts.