A bad bounce, some horribly-timed penalties and confusion by one of the steadiest goaltenders in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League conspired Thursday to prevent the Lewiston Maineiacs from earning a 14th win on 15 games and 22nd overall.

That quest will have to wait.

Allain Saulnier fired the puck into a virtual empty net from the left circle in the final minute of the second period after Lewiston keeper Nick Champion thought he’d frozen it tight against the right post to score the game-winner, and Moncton goalkeeper turned in a 40-save performance for the second time in a week as the Wildcats held on for a 4-3 win over the Maineiacs in front of 4,369 at the Moncton Coliseum.

The Maineiacs consistently pressured Owen, who stopped 40 shots in a shootout loss to Lewiston last Friday at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee. Thursday, the keeper saw his team outgunned 42-18, including 17-3 in the final frame, but kept the Maineiacs off the board.

“He was good, he made a lot of big saves when he had to, but we also missed a lot of opportunities,” Maineiacs’ coach J.F. Houle said. “We had some chances miss the net, bounce over sticks and get blocked. But he played well again, no question.”

Lewiston didn’t help its own cause in the late stages of the game, either, playing the final 1:10 short a player after a late roughing call to defenseman Olivier Dame-Malka.

“We lost a big opportunity there,” Houle said. “That was a huge mistake on his part, and he has to think of the team in a situation like that, not himself.”

The matchup to watch to begin the night was Kirill Kabanov, recently acquired by Lewiston, against his former team. He did not factor into the scoring, and officials whistled the Russian for a pair of minor penalties.

A Lewiston turnover set the table for the Wildcats’ first goal. Dame-Malka tried to drop the puck for fellow blueliner Dillon Fournier in the Maineiacs’ zone. Alex Saulnier jumped on the drifting puck and fed his twin brother Allain, who fired the puck past Lewiston keeper Nick Champion to put the home team on top, 1-0, just 1:24 into the game.

The potent Moncton power play, clicking at nearly 30 percent this season, gave the ‘Cats a 2-0 advantage as Alex MacDonald crept in from the point to score his fourth of the season past the halfway mark of the first.

“They have a good power play, one of the top three in the league I think,” Houle said. “We knew what they were doing on the power play, but we their goals were good goals. They have good players.”

Stefan Fournier cut the Moncton lead in half late in the first after a changeup by Dame-Malka froze Owen. Fournier batted home the slower-than-usual shot from the blue line with 6:16 to play in the opening frame.

Moncton went back in front by two early in the second, again on a power play. This time, it took just six seconds of power play time with Dillon Fournier in the box for Marek Hrivik to make the Maineiacs pay with his 15th of the season.

A pair of quick strikes erased the Wildcats’ advantage all together just across the midway point of the second period. Lewiston crawled to within a goal when Pierre-Olivier Morin picked the top glove corner behind Owen with the Maineiacs on a power play of their own. His blast from the left faceoff dot was his ninth of the season.

Less than a minute later, after a Zach Shannon shot bounced off Owen and Antoine Houde-Caron took a whack at it, Sam Henley buried the second rebound to even things up at three goals each.

“It was great to get the two quick ones, and you could really feel the momentum going in our direction,” Houle said. “That really rallied the troops.”

Champion thought he had the puck frozen at the right post as time ticked away in the final minute of that second frame, but the puck had kicked out to the left circle. With the whole net to shoot at, Allain Saulnier didn’t miss. With 27 seconds to play in the second, Moncton went back in front for good, 4-3.

The Maineiacs’ road swing concludes Friday when they visit the league-leading Saint John Sea Dogs for a 6:30 p.m. tilt, and the team then returns to Lewiston for a Sunday matinee against Montreal.