The Maine Nordiques got off to a quick start and ended their five-game losing streak.

Defensemen Nicholas Bernardo and Brendan Kimball each tallied a goal and an assist for the Nordiques in a 5-3 victory over the New Jersey Titans in a North American Hockey League East Division game Friday night in Middletown, New Jersey.

The Nordiques (2-5, 4 points) want scoring threats throughout the lineup, and they got showed that in Friday’s game.

“We want to be scoring throughout our roster,” Maine Nordiques coach Matt Pinchevsky said. “…Whatever the situation is, we want to be working together to achieve success out there.”

Goalie Thomas Heaney stopped 41 shots in the victory.

“I thought we had excellent goaltending; our goaltender played really well,” Pinchevsky said. “Their goaltending was solid, but we caught a couple of breaks on (Jacob Torgner).”

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Former Twin City Thunder forward and Long Island University commit Levente Keresztes totaled a goal and two assists for the Titans (3-6, 6 points).

Kellen Murphy opened the scoring for the Nordiques 64 seconds into the first period. Brendan Kimball provided the only assist.

The 1-0 lead only lasted 31 seconds as Marcus Sang tied the game for the Titans.

Maine had another quick start in the second period as Patrick Schmiedlin tallied a power-play goal 44 seconds into the frame, beating Torgner (19 saves). Forward Henrik Halberg and defenseman Bernado earned the assists.

The Nordiques went 1-for-4 on the man-advantage and the Titans were 0-for-4.

Kimball scored 91 seconds into the second period, extending the Nordiques’ lead to 3-1. Forward Jackson Foddrill dished out the assist.

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Keresztes beat Heaney 2:44 into the middle frame to cut the deficit to 3-2.

Titans forward Ben Yurchuk tied the game at 3-3 in the third period.

The Nordiques retook the lead when Bernardo scored 12:36 into the third, with Anthony Achile notching the assist.

Maine forward Filip Wiberg scored an empty-net goal in the final minute. Jonny Meiers and John-Paul Steele were credited with assists.

“We worked through a lot of adversity through the third period during the pulled-goalie sequence,” Pinchevsky said. “We worked through some untimely penalties, but I think our discipline kicked in and we focused on what we had to do (to get the win) and stick to the game plan.”

The teams go at it again Saturday in Middletown at 7 p.m.

Pinchevsky said the Nordiques have a few things to clean up for Saturday’s game.

“We wanted to have a little bit better transition and we wanted to get more time on attack; (New Jersey did a good job defending in their end),” Pinchevsky said. “We were able to capitalize on some chances, but with the amount of offensive chances we created, we want to capitalize more. We want to be a little more physical tomorrow because we know it is coming from (New Jersey).”


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