VERDUN, Quebec — The Lewiston Maineiacs’ once-dormant power play is finding the right time to figure itself out, and the team’s leading defensive goal-scorer in the regular season is now its top playoff scorer — period.

Olivier Dame-Malka scored the first four Lewiston goals against Montreal keeper Jean-Francois Berube, Antoine Houde-Caron added an empty-netter with 2:20 to play and Pierre-Olivier Morin added another for good measure with 10 seconds to play as the Maineiacs, behind four power-play goals and a stellar, 32-save effort by Nick Champion, skated out of Montreal on Saturday with a 6-2 victory and a 1-1 tie in the teams’ best-of-seven playoff series.

“Our transition game, 5-on-5, was really good tonight, and I thought our power play was really good tonight,” Maineiacs’ coach J.F. Houle said. “I liked the way we moved the puck. I liked the way we shot. I liked how we got traffic in front.”

Dame-Malka, who was one of the league’s top defensive scorers all season, scored all four on slap shots, three from the point and one from the high slot, and equaled a Quebec Major Junior Hockey League record for most goals in a playoff game by a defenseman.

“He has the best shot in the league, by far, it’s a rocket,” Houle said. “We’ve been on him all year about hitting the net, and it showed tonight.”

The victory, during which Lewiston outscored Montreal 4-0 in the third period, was the team’s first over the Junior in six tries this season, and the first time the Maineiacs have outplayed Montreal in the final frame.

“We don’t do anything different, it hockey, it’s a momentum thing,” Houle said. “(Friday) they took the momentum, and we got it back with 30 seconds left in the third period.”

Both teams survived early third-period, penalty-kill situations. Montreal had the better shots, including a laser of a wrister as the Montreal power play expired, but on that occasion, goalie Nick Champion snared the puck with his glove to settle the play down.

Champion again saved the day a few minutes later, when David Rose, Friday’s overtime here, slipped past defender Jonathan Parisien with a slick toe-drag, and nearly roofed a backhand deke past the Lewiston keeper, but with a nearly full split, Champion made the save.

“After looking back at (Friday), I think I came too far out against (Louis Leblanc), and he made a nice move and scored,” Champion said. “I stayed back a bit this time. He tried the same move and I was able to get over.”

Lewiston seized the momentum. Dame-Malka blasted his third of the game at 12:23 on a 4-on-4, and he added his fourth at 14:12 on a power play from the high slot.

The series returns now to Lewiston for Games 3 and 4 on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee, with Lewiston now in control of home-ice advantage.

“We’re a team that takes it game by game as it is,” Houle said. “It’s good to get a win on the road, but now that’s behind us and we have to focus on Game 3.”

Like they did in Game 1, the Junior got on the board first, and again they were aided by a man advantage. David Rose, the overtime hero in the first game, fed a pass from the right side board into the center slot to a waiting Charles-Olivier Roussel. As Lewiston forward Antoine Houde-Caron ran into Roussel, the defenseman fired a wrister that beat Champion high above the blocker, just under the crossbar for a 1-0 Montreal lead.

Lewiston didn’t let the first-period Montreal lead climb to two like it did in Game 1. On a power play of their own, the Maineiacs converted when Kirill Kabanov collected the puck at the left boards, waited for Dame-Malka to come open at the right point and fed him the puck for a one-timer. For the second consecutive day, Dame-Malka blasted a slapshot past Berube high glove, this one to even the score at 1-1 in Game 2.

Berube was excellent late in the period, stopping Michael Chaput and Kabanov each from in close on a Maineiacs power play as the first frame expired.

Another Junior power play, their first of the second period, yielded their second goal, though it technically wasn’t a power-play goal. Charles Landry uncorked a shot from the right point just as the penalty to Antoine-Houde Caron expired. The puck rang the right post, ricocheted across the crease behind Champion to Jeremy Gouchie at the left post. Gouchie fanned on the first try, but it didn’t matter. He had all day to tap the puck over the line, giving the home team a 2-1 advantage.

That lasted nearly the rest of the period. But Dame-Malka, on a 4-on-3 power play with less than 30 seconds to play, blasted his second of the game past Berube, again a one-timer high glove from the right point, this time set up by Sam Carrier.

Also in the second, the emotions between the teams turned to fisticuffs. A pair of fights a minute apart later in the period highlighted a chippy frame, during which the Maineiacs killed one penalty and scored a power- play goal on three chances.