It was a grind for the Maine Nordiques on Saturday night against the New Jersey Titans.

They had penalty trouble and gave up a two-goal lead, but after a scoreless third period by both teams, the Nordiques defeated the Titans in a shootout as Stefan Owens scored the lone goal of the tiebreaker to give the Nordiques a 4-3 victory at the Middletown Ice World Arena in Middletown, New Jersey.

Owens also scored in regulation and had an assist.

Coach Nolan Howe called it a gut-check win and was pleased with Owens and the other the 2000-born players.

“Stefan Owens had a huge game, Makem Demers, Cannon Green those guys are great,” Howe said. “Hopefully colleges will take notice and provide them the opportunity to keep playing because I know any college would be lucky to have those guys on their team. We are going to keep going about our business, but we have a lot of belief in those guys.”

Both teams had a chance to score in overtime but both goalies, Avery Sturtz of the Nordiques and the Titans’ Christian Stoever, made highlight reel saves.

The win gives the Nordiques (25-13-1, 51 points) a four-point cushion over the Titans (20-11-7, 47 points) for second place in the North American Hockey League East Division.

The Nordiques jumped out to a 1-0 lead just past the four-minute mark of the first period as the puck bounced from behind the net to Demers, who was in front of the crease and Demers fired it past Stoever (34 saves). Assists went to Owens and Luke Antonacci.

Maine got in trouble while New Jersey was shorthanded later in the first period as Matthew Iasenza tied the game with an unassisted goal marker at the 12:12 mark, beating Sturtz (34 saves).

Owens scored has 12th goal of the season with Green and Demers notching the assists with 3:11 remaining in the first period. Not even a minute later, Colorado College commit Patrick Schmiedlin stretched the lead to 3-1 with University of Maine commit Tyler Gaulin and James Philpott notching the assists.

New Jersey chipped away at the deficit as Anthony Calafiore found the back of the net for the 12th time this season at the 3:29 mark of the second period, with Zach Nazzarett getting the assist.

The penalty trouble begun for the Nordiques midway through the second period as Caden Pattison went off for roughing along with the Titans Jake Seude, who also went off for roughing. While the teams played 4-on-4 Nordiques defender Casper Soderling went off for hooking.

As the Nordiques were on the 4-on-3 penalty kill, the Nordiques took a too many men on the ice penalty.

Maine was able to kill all those penalties to keep the 3-2 lead, but weren’t able to stop the Titans power play later in the second period. With Pattison back in the box for another roughing call with 1:50 remaining in the period, Blake Humphrey potted his ninth goal of the season with 28 seconds left in the second period.

Caleb Price and Nick Seitz had the assists on Humphrey’s goal.

New Jersey was 1-for-3 on the man advantage while the Nordiques were scoreless on two chances.

“Our (penalty kill) gave one up tonight. I think if you look at the numbers we are giving up one penalty kill goal for every 15 minutes the other team is on the power play,” Howe said. “So, our penalty kills has been … lights out. They got one on us today, but at the end of the day, whatever the situation is those guys are called upon, they are going to go out and do their jobs.”

The teams wrap up the three-game series down in Middletown at 5 p.m. Sunday.

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