LEWISTON — The Maine Nordiques offense broke the game wide-open in the third period with five goals in a 6-1 win over the Northeast Generals in an NAHL East Division contest at The Colisee on Friday night.

The Brendan Gibbons-Aidan Connolly-Zion Green line combined for four goals and seven assists for the Nordiques (16-24-8, 40 points).

“We all know where each other is on the ice,” Gibbons said. “So we know where the puck is, and communication also separates us from our opponents.”

Goalie Avery Sturtz stopped 34 shots in the win.

“Right from the start, I felt comfortable in the net,” Sturtz said. “I got in the game with some easy saves to build the confidence up and went from there. I had to make a couple of bigger ones (as the game went on), but I was ready for it, based on the start we had.”

It was the Generals (29-21-1, 58 points) who scored the first goal of the third period. Alex Krause scored a wrap-around goal 25 seconds into the period to tie the game 1-1.

Connolly quickly gave the Nordiques the lead back when he jammed home the puck at the 1:17 mark for his 16th goal of the season. Green and Gibbons had the helpers.

“I think our mentality was strong,” Nordiques coach Matt Pinchevsky said. “I thought a portion of the second (period), we survived that, we worked through that and concluded that period on the power play. It got really chaotic in the third and we settled in and poured it on. I think we had to make sure we were in the right mental place, continue to have fun, and hit the details.”

Two-plus minutes later, Nordiques forward Johnny Meiers won a faceoff to Reese Farrell, who quickly fired a wrist shot past Generals goalie Cullen DeYoung.

The Nordiques scored two goals in a 34-second span later in the period. Caden Pattison skated down the left wing and his saucer pass from the left circle found Oliver Genest in the slot. Genest tapped the puck in the half-open net for his first goal of the season for a 4-1 lead 5:49 into the third period.

Genest is an affiliate player call-up, along with defenseman Seth Murch, who also played.

“(Oliver) is a very smart hockey player and he knows the goals live in the (crease),” Pinchevsky said. “A really nice play by his linemates — Caden Pattison and Jack Kurrle — that was great for that combo to really earn one. They were so defensively sound because they are hard to play against. They keep it simple, they all got pretty good frames and they skate well.

“Seth Murch was a plus-4 in a 6-1 win.”

Gibbon scored his second of the game inside the slot at the 6:23 mark of the third period to make it 5-1 Nordiques. Green picked up another assist.

Connolly scored a backhander top-shelf late in the third period, with his linemates picking up the assists.

“I thought they did a good job on the defensive side of things tonight,” Pinchevsky said of the Connolly line. “I think they could possibly produce more. It’s great they were generating those chances and they are a lot of fun to watch.”

Ignat Belov thought he scored to give the Nordiques a 1-0 lead in the first period when he jammed the puck past DeYoung (22 saves) at the 14-minute mark on the power play, but the referees waved it off.

Maine bounced back nearly two minutes later when Connolly found Gibbons in the right circle with a pass. Gibbons ripped a shot by DeYoung for the 1-0 lead. Green had the secondary assist.

Gibbons played in the Generals’ home rink, the New England Sports Village in Attleboro, Massachusetts, so he enjoys going up against them.

“My family always goes to our away games (in Attleboro),” Gibbons said. “It’s always special when we beat them.”

The Generals put 11 shots on Sturtz in the first period and the third-year netminder stopped all of them.

The Nordiques only had eight shots on DeYoung.

Northeast continued to pepper Sturtz in the second period, with 13 shots on goal, but couldn’t find the back of the net. Sturtz had a key save nine minutes into the period, stopping Matt Boczar on a breakaway.

“I thought Sturtz did a good job the first two periods. We didn’t play with the urgency we needed,” Generals coach Bryan Erikson said. “Playing them so much recently and having success against them, it made our guys a little cocky and they have to understand, we are just not that team. We have to show up and play 60 minutes against everybody. Tonight is no different. Hopefully we move on to tomorrow.”

Maine had chances with two power plays, after having two power plays in the first period, but DeYoung kept the game 1-0. The second power play of the second period was when Jared Scott of the Generals skated into Sturtz for goalie interference, 16:47 into the period.

Scott also received a roughing penalty after Nordiques forward Jack Kurrle went after Scott for crashing into Sturtz. Kurrle also received a coincidental roughing penalty.

The teams meet again Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. in Lewiston.

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