LEWISTON — The Maine Nordiques faced adversity head-on Saturday night.

Down 4-1 after 20 minutes, they scored five of the game’s next six goals to defeat the Northeast Generals 6-5 in front of 1,009 fans at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee.

“We don’t shy from challenges, I am very happy for our boys, they continue to believe in each other, which is the most important thing,” Nordiques coach Nolan Howe said. “They believe in their coaches. They believe in the Nordiques organization. The fan support tonight was absolutely tremendous. Ultimately, it was us doing the things the right way and getting rewarded for it.”

The Nordiques went 4-for-8 on the man advantage, with two of the goals coming from Trent Grimshaw. Grimshaw finished the game with a hat trick. His third goal came two seconds after a power play expired.

“Pucks were kind of finding themselves to me,” Grimshaw said. “That first one, (Northeast) threw it up the boards, I had a 2-on-1 with (Noah) Kane and it went in. So, it was definitely nice to get that first one early and its always easier from there.”

After Grimshaw scored his three goals in the first 40 minutes to get the Nordiques in striking distance, Cannon Green and Tim Kent evened the game in the third.

Kent cut the deficit to 5-4 early in the third as Green had the initial shot before Kent got a stick on it as it slid past Generals goalie Connor Bradford (33 saves).

The game changed when Cam Gaudette – the brother of Adam Gaudette of the Vancouver Canuacks and University of Maine freshman Brady Gaudette – elbowed Nordiques forward Kevin Pitts and was called for a five-minute major.

Kent set up Green for the tying goal with eight minutes remaining in the game.

“When me and Timmy are playing together, he’s someone who keeps me fired up throughout the game,” Green said. “Whether its first period, the third period, I just feel motivated when I am out there with him.”

Jack Strauss added the Nordiques’ fourth power play goal, the second of the five minute major for the game-winner.

For Generals, the major was one of a handful of calls that didn’t go their way Saturday.

“Anytime the refs are going to give them the benefit of the doubt on calls, it’s going to hurt us,” Generals general manager and head coach Bryan Erikson said. “I thought we kind of got screwed today. Usually I don’t blame the officiating, but I thought we got tripped on a breakaway clearly with no call. We had a delayed penalty for some reason the referee blew his whistle on a 2-on-1 down low. The five-minute major, I have to look at it. I can’t comment on it. Give Maine credit, their power play was really good and they do a good job scoring quickly.”

The Generals dominated the first period and started early, as two minutes in Aeden Drossos gave Northeast a 1-0 lead.

Gaudette put the Generals up 2-0 on the man advantage as he blasted a slap shot from the right faceoff dot on a feed from Michael Heneghan. Friday’s hero, Gerald Marretta scored his first of the period as he followed his initial as Nordiques goalie Avery Sturtz (24 saves) kicked it back in the slot where Marretta put it into the half-open cage.

Trent Grimshaw stopped Northeast’s momentum as he put the Nordiques on the board with a power play marker with just under four minutes to play in the period.

Marretta capped the Generals’ four-goal period as he notched his second goal with five seconds remaining in the first period.

After a power play ended, Grimshaw found the back of the net beating Bradford low blocker side just 39 seconds into the period.

Northeast notched its own power play goal as Joe Nagle crashed the back door for an easy tap-in goal from Liam McCanney a little over three minutes after Grimshaw’s second goal.

Grimshaw completed the hat trick with his third power play goal 16 seconds after Blake Arneson went into the box for roughing at the five-minute mark of the second period.

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