SAINT JOHN, New Brunswick — As well as the Lewiston Maineiacs have played this season, their old rivals in Saint John always seemed to be a step ahead.

Less than a week after cracking the BMO Canadian Hockey League Top 10 in the No. 10 position, the Maineiacs are on a losing streak, their first since late October, thanks to the No. 2-ranked Sea Dogs.

Six different players scored goals for Saint John and Frederic Piche stopped 28 shots to lead the Sea Dogs to a 6-2 win over the Maineiacs at Harbour Station.

“That’s probably the best team I’ve seen this year at passing the puck, controlling the play, everything is just bang-bang,” Maineiacs’ coach J.F. Houle said. “We were a little bit tired out there, too, and you could tell. They had a little bit more jump.”

The Sea Dogs, meanwhile, continued to roll, picking up another pair of points, something they’ve done in 14 consecutive games.

“That’s a really good team we played (Friday), they’ve been on a tear lately,” Saint John coach Gerard Gallant said. “We’ve played some good teams, but we knew tonight was going to be a good game. They skate real well, they have some good skill, and they played real well.”

The Maineiacs also played with a short bench on the blue line, using forward Alex Zafiris as both Zach Shannon (injury) and Olivier Dame-Malka (discipline) sat out Thursday.

“We’re the most penalized team in the league, and it has to stop,” Houle said of sitting Dame-Malka. “We have to be accountable.”

Kirill Kabanov also missed the game for the Maineiacs at forward, but that was, according to Houle, an injury issue.

A visibly tentative Lewiston team allowed 20 shots on goal in the opening frame while managing just four on Piche.

But Lewiston’s fourth line put the visitors out in front early, to the dismay of the 3,732 in attendance at Harbour Station. Digging behind the net, Francis Beauvillier gathered the puck and flipped it to the front, where Cole Hawes chipped it past Piche at the top of the blue paint for the Maineiacs’ first goal of the night.

Saint John outmuscled and generally had more opportunities than the Maineiacs for much of the first period, but, at even strength had nothing to show for it. On the power play, though, the Sea Dogs’ offensive machine cranked out an equalizer.

Jonathan Huberdeau, recently ranked by NHL Central Scouting as a first-round prospect in next summer’s draft, tapped home his 20th of the year from the right post after Ryan Tesink isolated a Lewiston defender down low and flipped to Huberdeau at the top of the crease, just in front of Champion.

“We played a really good first period,” Gallant said. “The way we came out was great, but we let down a bit there in the second period. It’s tough to play 60 minutes like we played in the first, but we had too many turnovers for my liking.”

“I thought we played our best period in the second,” Houle said. “But they went and scored two goals.”

Danick Gauthier put the hosts in front by a goal just 2:15 into the middle frame when he found a wide-open cage from the lower right circle after a series of quick passes confused Champion and the Lewiston defenders.

After two consecutive Lewiston penalties gave the Sea Dogs a brief 5-on-3 and an extended 5-on-4 — all of which the Maineiacs killed — Lewiston picked up the pace a bit.

But against the grain, on a seemingly innocent play, Michael Kirkpatrick upped the hosts’ lead to a pair. Broken up across the Lewiston blue line, Kirkpatrick regained possession of the puck, put his head down and blasted a shot toward the cage. It sailed over Champion’s right shoulder and into the top corner of the net for a 3-1 Saint John advantage.

Saint opened it up in the third. Tomas Jurco, Simon Despres and Mike Thomas all beat Champion in the final stanza, against just one tally from the Maineiacs, a Jess Tanguy tip-in goal on a feed from Christophe Lalonde.

There is little time to rest for the Maineiacs, who return home for a contest at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee against the Montreal Junior at 4 p.m. Sunday.