Christmas is going to be much more fun for the Lewiston Maineiacs this season than it was a year ago.

Faced with a two-goal deficit to open the third period, Dillon Fournier keyed a three-goal rally with his third of the year, Jess Tanguy returned to the lineup with a bang on a hard-working goal in front and Pierre-Olivier Morin closed out the contest with a rebound goal with just 3:41 remaining in regulation to lift the Maineiacs to a 5-4 victory over the Shawinigan Cataractes in front of 3,308 at Centre Bionest on Saturday.

“We had to dig our way out of a hole to pull this one out,” Maineiacs’ coach J.F. Houle said. “This is what we wanted, to finish with a win. Now we get to go home and celebrate with our families and relax and enjoy a win.”

The Maineiacs’ victory is their 24th of the season, one more than the team accrued in all of 2009-10. At 24-13-0-2, Lewiston has 50 points, also one better than all of last year, and will resume play in the unofficial second half of the season after Christmas in second place in the Telus East division and in fifth overall in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

“I think we’ve come a long way,” Houle said. “The players this year are a year older, a year better and it shows. They’re learning how to win games now.”

For the Lewiston players, coaches, team staff and fan base, Christmas came early. With a handful of fans and almost the entire team staff in attendance in Montreal and Shawinigan for the road trip this week, the team capped the journey in style. After losing a see-saw battle in Montreal on Friday, the team staged a remarkable turnaround in the third period Saturday.

“We were pretty down in the locker room after the second,” Houle said. “That first goal coming out of the break was huge. We needed the momentum boost.”

Fournier was happy to oblige. His third of the season off a faceoff win early in the third rejuvenated the team. A lengthy review upheld Tanguy’s goal after the puck teetered on the line for a few seconds before eventually breaking the plane, and Morin’s 11th of the season from former Shawinigan forward Antoine Houde-Caron sent the Maineiacs into the Christmas break winners.

Ian Saab, who has played in just more than half of the team’s games to date, had his best night of the season, perhaps an early holiday gift. He picked up his first goal of the season, added an assist and also a fight to complete the Gordie Howe hat trick. Morin, Houde-Caron and Tanguy also collected a pair of points, and Andrey Makarov, making his first start in nearly two weeks, turned back 32 of 36 to earn the victory between the Lewiston pipes.

“He played solid, especially in the first period,” Houle said of Makarov. He saw 17 shots, and he stopped two breakaways.”

The Cataractes netted the lone goal of the first period when Yannick Veilleux beat the Russian keeper in the final minutes of the frame. The team traded goals in the second. Twice, the Maineiacs tied the game, and twice the Cats responded quickly. Shawinigan scored three power play goals in the middle frame to take a 4-2 lead.

The Maineiacs don’t play again until the front end of a home-and-home with Victoriaville on the road on Tuesday, Dec. 28. The next Lewiston home game is the back end of that home-and-home, a Thursday night showdown against the Tigres at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee.