LEWISTON — This time, a two-goal lead was plenty.

After struggling to hold a lead in a handful of games to begin the season, the Lewiston Maineiacs again jumped out to an early lead. A suddenly-hot Michael Chaput scored twice, Etienne Brodeur added three assists to his burgeoning point total and Nick Champion stopped 22 of 23 shots to lift the Maineiacs to a 3-1 win over Chicoutimi at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee on Wednesday.

But it was the Maineiacs’ ability to play with — and hold — a lead that cemented the victory.

“We practiced winning with and keeping the lead all week long,” Maineiacs’ coach J.F. Houle said. “I think the guys knew that we meant business, and it wasn’t going to happen again. We played well with the lead.”

For a big chunk of the first period, through most of which Lewiston held a 1-0 advantage, the Sagueneens enjoyed at least a one-man advantage. Officials sent Antoine Houde-Caron packing early in the game for a hit from behind, resulting in a five-minute Sags power play. During the kill, Brodeur also took a hitting-from-behind penalty, putting the Maineiacs down two men for a full two minutes.

“To start the game with a 5-on-3 power play and not get anything from it, that was big,” Chicoutimi coach Richard Martel said. “We need to be better on the power play. After that, we had no momentum.”

During their two minutes of 5-on-3 for the Sags, Lewiston defenseman Sam Finn killed off more than 40 seconds of it on his own as he pinned the puck along the boards in the corner and held off three Sags forwards trying to jar it loose.

“Sam Finn doesn’t get a lot of point, but his work defensively, especially on the penalty kill, was huge for us,” Houle said. “He’s so good on defense and on the penalty kill.”

Chaput put the Maineiacs on the board early, after the home team had killed off a penalty. Chaput, cruising through the low slot, tipped a shot by Sam Carrier past Gibson to put Lewiston on top 1-0.

“Sometimes you go through slumps like that where you don’t score or get points, but it takes just one game to rebound and get going,” Chaput said. “This is one of those games, I guess. The first one was just a tip.”

Despite several chances for the Sags, Lewiston killed off the Houde-Caron and Brodeur penalties that followed, and seized the momentum. At the 14:33 mark, Stefan Fournier ripped a shot from the left circle on a feed from Zach Shannon on the Maineiacs’ first power play of the game to pad the team’s lead.

Lewiston went on top 3-0 when Chaput added his second of the game on a 2-on-1 down low with Brodeur.

“That was just a great pass from Brodeur, actually,” Chaput said.

Chaput had scored just once since returning from Philadelphia Flyers camp this fall. Brodeur, meanwhile, continues to pile up the points. Already at 10 goals on the year, the speedy forward pushed his assist total to four Wednesday with three helpers.

The three-goal advantage was short-lived, though. The Sags, on their fourth power play of the game, finally converted when former Lewiston captain Billy Lacasse pushed the puck — and three players — into the net from the right post.

Lewiston shut the Sags down in the third, allowing the visitors just seven shots at Champion, who stopped them all.

Lewiston takes off on a two-day road swing this weekend to Baie-Comeau before returning to Lewiston to face the Shawinigan Cataractes on Wednesday, Oct. 20 at the Colisee.