LEWISTON — Someone found the ‘on’ switch for Kirill Kabanov during the first round of the playoffs.

Perhaps that same someone also found a new gear into which he could shift in Round 2.

Kabanov continued his playoff scoring prowess with a pair of goals Wednesday, Etienne Brodeur added three assists and Nick Champion continued to provide stellar goaltending, making 31 saves on 32 shots as the Lewiston Maineiacs pushed the Montreal Junior to the brink of elimination with a 4-1 victory in Game 4 of the teams’ best-of-seven, second-round playoff series at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee.

“Two-two or 3-1 is a big difference, but like I told the guys tonight, we’ll enjoy it for about five minutes,” Lewiston coach J.F. Houle said. “It’s not over yet. The fourth win is always the toughest one to get, and our guys are already starting to think about the next game.”

The Junior were visibly stunned after Antoine Houde-Caron fired the puck into an empty net with 1:28 to play Wednesday after Montreal pulled keeper Jean-Francois Berube for an extra attacker. Players slouched at the waist, others rested on the boards by their bench, and those on the bench stared at their skates. Trailing by three in the final minute, the Montreal players barely skated.

“They deserved to win,” Montreal coach Pascal Vincent said. “They’re trying stuff offensively and it’s working … Right now, they’re playing well. They had no pressure until (Wednesday), to be honest with you. You have these, ‘You should be winning, you should not be winning.’ That’s what the series is all about. We were the favorite, OK, now they’re supposed to win. They have three games to win one game. We know how tough it is for us to come back. It will be really tough, but at the same time, I think the pressure has turned around, it’s on them now.”

The night belonged to the Maineiacs’ Russian playmaker, who turned into a sniper Wednesday.

“He was out of his league,” Houle said. “He could have had five goals. He was a difference out there, very creative. He shot a lot more tonight, and he’s a good player when he plays like that.”

His first was a virtual tap-in after a slick set play on the power play. Kabanov touched the puck into an open net at the left post just 33 seconds into the third period to give the Maineiacs a 2-1 lead.

“The boys made such a great play, I probably would have killed myself to miss,” Kabanov said. “I didn’t even understand. My linemates made unbelievable plays, and I was like, ‘Oh, really?’ and tapped it in.”

The Junior thought they’d tied the game at 3:57 of the third, but the whistle blew after the linesman noticed the net was off its mooring.

“Life is full ‘ifs,'” Vincent said. “If I picked the winning lottery numbers, I’d be a millionaire. The reality is, they played better tonight, they played to win.”

Kabanov seized the momentum with his second of the game 36 seconds after the goal review, banking a wrister in off the left post on a shot from the right circle.

“I go on the right side, I saw the ‘D’ on the left side, I closed my eyes and shot,” Kabanov said.

Brodeur’s three helpers gave him eight for the playoffs, tied with Kabanov for third on the team behind Olivier Dame-Malka and Michael Chaput, who also found the score sheet.

“Only because the rest of the boys did what they did, I had a chance,” Kabanov said. “I could have had a couple more, but I don’t care. We won, and we’re so happy that the team won. It’s unbelievable.”

The Maineiacs’ speed caused the Junior all kinds of problems in the first, forcing the Montreal squad into four penalties in the first 20 minutes. Lewiston capitalized on its second opportunity with an extra skater. With nine seconds remaining on a 5-on-3, Chaput buried a chance from nearly the goal line in almost a carbon copy of Etienne Brodeur’s late-game winner in Tuesday’s Game 3, only this time the puck came from Sam Carrier on an intentional pass from the left point.

Kabanov electrified the crowd in the waning minutes of the opening frame as he slipped through center, juked a pair of Montreal defenders nearly to the ice and broke in alone on Berube. He missed wide right on what would have been Lewiston’s 18th shot of the period.

“I thought Berube was very good in the first period,” Vincent said.

Champion was again solid when he had to be on the other end, though he wasn’t tested nearly as much as he was in the final pair of periods of Game 3.

He was tested several times early in the second as the Junior enjoyed their first power play of the game 2:59 in on a high-sticking call to Alex Zafiris. He stuffed Trevor Parkes and David Rose twice each down low on the Montreal advantage, and Louis Leblanc once just after the penalty had expired.

“Things are going really good right now, we just have to keep that going,” Champion said.

The Junior did get the goal back and evened things at 1-1 when David Rose, the Game 1 overtime hero for Montreal, roofed the puck past Champion with the Maineiacs on the penalty kill and another call on the way.

The Junior spent the next two full minutes on a 5-on-3 power play, but came up empty, sending the home crowd into a frenzy.

“I don’t see the composure in our players that I’ve seen all season,” Vincent said. “We’re just throwing pucks at the net, not challenging the defense. We’ll look at the tapes and see what we can adjust.”

Lewiston went back on the power play immediately after, but did nothing with the momentum generated from the lengthy kill.