LEWISTON — Sixteen-year-old Christophe Lalonde grinned from ear to ear as he slipped into his dress shirt in the Lewiston Maineiacs’ locker room. Almost laughing, Lalonde summed up the game his team had just played in one sentence.

“I got my first one at the same time as the guys who have been here two years,” Lalonde said. “It’s awesome.”

Lalonde and the rest of the Maineiacs emphatically tossed the monkey off their collective backs Saturday. Michael Chaput and Olivier Dame-Malka scored and Nick Champion made 17 saves on 18 shots as Lewiston earned its first playoff win since 2008 on Saturday at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee, gutting out a 2-1 victory over the Moncton Wildcats in Game 2 of the teams’ best-of-seven playoff series in front of 1,729.

“It’s a good building point; this has been a long time coming,” Lewiston coach J.F. Houle said. “I thought we competed hard. We blocked a lot of shots. We got into a little penalty trouble again in the second, but I thought our PK did an outstanding job.”

Champion was solid between the pipes for the second consecutive night, having allowed three goals in a 4-1 setback in Game 1 on Friday. In Game 2, only a de facto power-play goal beat the 20-year-old keeper.

“The guys did a great job keeping what shots they did have to the outside,” Champion said. “Obviously the start is very important, and they did a great job limiting the shots.”

“I thought he made some pretty big saves,” Houle said. “It’s tough for a goalie when you’re trying to battle and stay in the game, then you get that one shot.”

Moncton did what it set out to do from the beginning of the series, though, and earned a split on the road to begin the potential seven-game set.

“Both games were hard-fought games, and we came down here and got our split,” Moncton coach Danny Flynn said. “It’s a best-of-five with home is for us now. We held an immensely talented offensive team to three goals in two games. I thought we played very well defensively, and I thought our young goaltender was real sharp.”

The Wildcats were without top scoring threat Marek Hrivik due to a suspension, and without Scott Trask due to an injury sustained in Friday’s game.

“A number of young guys were playing in key situations up front and on the blue line,” Flynn said. “It’d given our young core a real introduction as to how hard-fought the playoffs are in this league.”

Lewiston also skated short a pair of skaters due to suspension, with Antoine Houde-Caron out for three games and Ian Saab down for one game after Friday’s contest.

Neither team managed many shots on goal early, and it was a theme carried throughout the first period. Moncton took the game’s first shot nearly four minutes into the contest — and the Wildcats added only one more in the first 20 minutes.

“I think it was close-checking, playoff hockey,” Flynn said. “They didn’t get a lot of shots, either, and they’re a team that’s the third-highest scoring team in the league … I think both teams did a good job defensively.”

Lewiston also struggled to get pucks in on the young netminder Brandon Thibeau, but when the Maineiacs did, they were quality chances. Michael Chaput capitalized on the first big chance, weaving his way through two defenders after a long outlet pass from Zach Shannon and beating Thibeau middle glove to put Lewiston in front, 1-0.

“I cut across the ice and I looked back to try and make a pass, and it looked like the D’men just fell asleep,” Chaput said. “I just took it to the net. When you pull a move like that and get to the goalie, you just shoot it on net.”

Lewiston had a golden chance to double its lead on a near-perfect give-and-go beytween Sam Henley and Cameron Critchlow, but Thibeau was stellar on the play, shooting his leg pad out to thwart Critchlow’s chance in the low slot.

“Last night they kept us more out wide, tonight we had a little bit more penetration,” Houle said. “That’s what we have to do, we have to get to the middle and get quality shots.”

The Maineiacs succeeded in doubling their lead early in the second. Olivier Dame-Malka crossed center with the puck, crossed the Moncton blue line a ripped a shot on goal as the rest of the team changed behind him. The puck glanced off the shaft of Thibeau’s stick, hit the pipe and deflected into the cage for a 2-0 Lewiston advantage.

Lewiston had to kill three consecutive Moncton power plays through the middle part of the second period, and did so successfully. After a brief Maineiacs power play, Moncton drew its fourth man advantage, and five seconds after it finished, with the Wildcats still in control in the Lewiston zone, Allain Saulnier capitalized on a feed from his twin brother Alex to get the visitors on the board, rifling a shot from the left faceoff dot past Champion.

“There were a lot of people out front. The pass went across and I was a little bit late,” Champion said. “I almost had it, but it was a pretty good shot, just inside the post.”

“That could have shifted the momentum, but we just lined right back up and didn’t let it,” Houle said. “We took the momentum right back. That’s a credit to our players. They worked hard.”