LEWISTON — For two periods, the Val d’Or Foreurs sucked the Lewiston Maineiacs in. For two frames, the visitors had their way with the Maineiacs physically, both during the play and after the whistle. They played hard-nosed, physical hockey, and set Lewiston, a team driven by crisp passing, swift feet and team speed, on its heels.

Everything changed in the third period.

Less than three minutes after Olivier Archambault put Val d’Or on top by a goal, Jess Tanguy sparked a four-goal outburst with a breakaway tally. Olivier Dame-Malka blasted a pair past rookie keeper Francois Tremblay and Sam Henley dipped and dodged his way to another, leading the Maineiacs to a 5-2 win over Val d’Or in front of 2,007 at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee.

The win was the Maineiacs’ fifth in a row, and 10th in their last 13 games.

“It wasn’t pretty, and I told the players it’s not always pretty, but we found a way to win,” Lewiston coach J.F. Houle said. “We came back in the third, we stayed composed, we didn’t get into their game and we played well in the third.”

Val d’Or, meanwhile, dropped its fourth consecutive decision, and second in as many nights by a 5-2 count.

“Were a physical team, but the opponent doesn’t change our game plan,” Val d’Or coach Marc-Andre Dumont said. “I would say the second part of the first period, and the second part of the second period, these were moments when we built some momentum.”

After a rough pair of periods, things settled down in the third. Val d’Or took advantage of some open ice on the power play, and Archambault, the top pick of the 2009 QMJHL draft, buried a chance against Lewiston keeper Nick Champion to put the Foreurs on top 2-1.

Less than three minutes later, at 3:29 of the final frame, Henley zipped a pass through the middle to Jess Tanguy, who went in alone and score on Tremblay top shelf glove side to even things up. The second-largest crowd of the season roared in approval.

“The crowd was great, they were very loud tonight and we really felt it after that,” Henley said. “On the pass, it’s easier when he’s calling for it. When we communicate on the ice, it’s easy to make passes like that.”

The Maineiacs opened the floodgates after that. Dame-Malka rifled the puck from the left point at 5:11 to put Lewiston in front by one.

Henley then scored at 9:54, on one of the fancier moves he recalls making. He flipped the puck to himself across the blue line along the right boards, cut to the middle across the top of the circle and roofed it over Tremblay’s glove.

“I don’t know where that came from,” Henley said. “I would like to do it more often, though.”

Dame-Malka sealed the victory with another blast from the left point with 1:44 to play, right after a Val d’Or timeout.

The first couple of periods each featured a goal, and each featured plenty of hitting, fighting and chippy play after the whistle.

“We noticed it was mostly physical after the whistle, and it really didn’t work against us because they didn’t intimidate us at all,” Maineiacs’ defenseman Sam Finn said. “It’s between the whistle that matters, and between the whistles, we were clearly faster than them, so their physical play really did not work on us.”

On the other side, Dumont went as far as accusing the Maineiacs of playing “cheap” hockey.

“What disrupted the game, I haven’t seen a team this year that cheap shots as much as the Lewiston Maineiacs,” Dumont said. “They are the team that cheap shots the most that we’ve seen this year … I haven’t seen an opposing team cheap shot and then smile like that, after plays, after the whistle.

“An eye for an eye,” Dumont added, after being asked what his team had to do differently to turn things around Saturday.

Read Dumont’s comments, Houle declined comment on the subject.

Lewiston struck first just four minutes into the game when Pierre-Olivier Morin finished a bang-bang play on a 2-on-1 with Etienne Brodeur. Morin left the game in the second after taking a two-handed slash to the upper part of his leg from Jonathan Hazen, who was tossed from the game. Morin was walking on his own after the game, and Houle appeared optimistic that Morin would return without missing any time.

Later in the second, Val d’Or countered to even the score at 16:46 when Marc-Alain Begin waited out Champion and lofted the puck into the cage behind the prone keeper during a pileup in front.

The same teams will again slug it out at the Colisee on Saturday at 7 p.m.