It didn’t count toward a hat trick, but Jess Tanguy’s shootout goal was the more important of the three he scored Saturday.

Displaying a deft scoring touch during breakaway drills in practice, Tanguy earned coach J.F. Houle’s trust, and he didn’t let him down in a critical late-season game against the Baie-Comeau Drakkar.

Tanguy’s goal in the second round of the shootout, along with another from 16-year-old rookie Francis Beauvillier, lifted the Lewiston Maineiacs to a 6-5 win in front of 1,588 at the Henry Leonard Centre.

“In practice, after we lost to Val d’Or in a shootout, we started working on breakaways, and Beauvillier and tanguy have been the best,” Houle said. “We worked hard on that, and they showed why they were picked tonight.”

The win was of the gut-check variety for the Maineiacs, who are trying to hold off the Drakkar for the final playoff berth in the Quebec major Junior Hockey League. On Friday, Baie-Comeau pulled to within five points of Lewiston with a 5-3 victory. Lewiston’s cushion is back to seven, and the Maineiacs are also closing in on Acadie-Bathurst for 15th overall.

But despite the win, Houle was less than satisfied.

“We were very inconsistent,” Houle said. “We were ahead by two, we allowed four goals in a row. I wasn’t happy after the second period, and I let the boys know that. They battled back in the third.”

Down 5-3, Tanguy netted his first of the game — his 10th of the season — on the power play on a feed from Michal Hlinka at 9:22 of the final frame.

Less than two minutes later, on another power play, Tanguy struck again, this time from Hlinka and Beauvillier, to even the score at five.

“Even with the score the way it was, Adrien (Lemay, the Maineiacs’ goalie) made some great saves to keep it at 5-3 when they could have gone ahead by three or four,” Houle said.

The problem, Houle said, is on the back end.

“We need to spend some time working on what we’re supposed to be doing in the defensive zone,” Houle said. “We’re not playing well defensively at all.”

Sam Carrier finished the game with two goals and an assist for Lewiston, and Pierre-Olivier Morin finished with three assists.

Lewiston will have one full day to work on that and any other things it deems necessary before hosting the Montreal Junior for a home game on Tuesday at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee.