LEWISTON – Max Gratchev knew he had the unofficial hat trick.

With the Lewiston Maineiacs’ game against the Chicoutimi Sagueneens undecided after overtime, Gratchev, who scored a pair of goals in regulation, took his turn in the shootout. He deked left, right and back to the left, leaving Sags’ goalie Francois Levesque prone on his stomach. As he shot the puck, Levesque kicked the post off its mooring, but the puck sailed into the netting anyway.

Officials blew the play dead, signaling no goal.

“He shouldn’t have reviewed it, it’s his call,” Maineiacs’ coach Ed Harding said. “We know the puck’s in the net. The goaltender displaced the goal on his own, it was going in the net anyway, so it’s a goal. We talked to some of the off-ice officials after the game, and they said the same thing.”

Alex Beaton made it a moot point.

After four Chicoutimi players attempted – and failed – to score against Maineiacs’ keeper Philip Wright, Alex Beaton converted on Lewiston’s fourth shootout attempt to lift the Maineiacs to a 4-3 victory Thursday.

Beaton’s move, a deke to the left and a drag to the right, left Levesque scambling to the glove side. Beaton slid the winner inside the right post.

“It’s a move I’ve got some confidence with through practice, and I thought it would work on him,” Beaton said.

Gratchev’s second goal of the night came with eight seconds remaining in regulation, helping the Maineiacs come back from one goal down for the third time Wednesday.

“These guys are playing their you-know-whats off,” Harding said. “They deserved the two points tonight, and I’m glad we were able to come away with that.”

“It was a bad mistake at the end,” Chicoutimi coach Richard Martel said. “That allowed them to tie the game.”

Lewiston is now 2-0 in shootouts, with each instance drawing upon a different hero. Lucas Labelle and now Beaton have provided the drama. The Maineiacs are also 4-0 overall in games going beyond regulation.

The Sags got on the board first, much to the chagrin of the handful of fans gathered in the seats for a rare mid-week home game.

Jacob Lagace took a feed from Nicolas Deschamps at center ice and broke in on Wright shorthanded. Lagace deked right to his forehand and dragged the puck to his backhand, roofing it high over Wright for a 1-0 lead.

The Maineiacs evened things up at one at 17:41 when a centering feed gone awry ended up on Michael Ward’s stick. The veteran defenseman rifled a shot low through traffic and past Levesque, pulling his team even.

“Five against five, nothing,” Martel said. “Lewiston outplayed us badly in those situations.”

In the second, Lewiston played several minutes short-handed, and suffered for it. Lagace potted his second of the game at 7:52 on a tip-in when former Maineiac Nicolas Therrien launched a slapper from the left point through a crowd in front. Lagace got a stick on it and the puck trickled through Wright’s pads.

“He’s a little unorthodox, a little scary at times,” Harding said of Wright, “but he comes here every morning, he’s smiling, he’s working hard.”

The Maineiacs evened things up in the third on Gratchev’s first of the game at 9:15, only to have the Sags tally another power-play marker at 10:35 to again take a one-goal lead.

In the final moments of the game, though, with Wright on the bench for an extra skater, Eric Gelinas blasted a shot from the left point, and Gratchev got his stick on it to send the game into overtime.

The Maineiacs have one day off, and then will host Drummondville for a pair of games Saturday and Sunday.