LEWISTON – There was no shortage of offense this time.

Defense, on the other hand, was at a premium.

Rouyn-Noranda added to the Lewiston Maineiacs’ home woes Saturday night, outslugging them 7-5 in front of 2,408 at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee and sending the Maineiacs to their fourth straight defeat.

“This was more like a football game,” Rouyn-Noranda coach Andre Tourigny said, laughing a bit. “It was like, whoever got the last shot would win.”

The Huskies took the final shot, twice taking the lead in the third period, only to have Lewiston tie things up a short time later.

“We got behind, came back, got behind came back, so I suppose that showed good resiliency,” Maineiacs’ coach Ed Harding said.

That said, Harding was diappointed at the team’s overall defensive effort.

“If you’d have come to me before this three-game homestand and said we’d give up 19, 20 and 23 shots, I’d say we’d be 3-0,” Harding said. “We’re doing a lot of things right, but we can’t be giving up six goals on 23 shots.”

The teams began the third period knotted at three. Sergey Ostapchuk swatted a rebound past Lewiston keeper Peter Delmas at 10:34 of the third to put the Huskies on top 4-3. Denis Reul fired a wrist shot through traffic and beat Rouyn-Noranda goalie Antoine Lafleur at 12:27 to even things up.

Former Maineiac Pier-Luc Champagne made it 5-4 for the Huskies ith his first of the season at 15:04, and Lewiston replied 43 seconds later on a Marc Bourgeois strike to again tie things up.

With 58 seconds to play, Jean-Sebastien Berube delivered the final blow, lifting a backhander over Delmas’ right shoulder from in tight.

Maxime Macenauer finished a hat trick with an empty-netter to round out the scoresheet.

The Huskies stunned the crowd just 55 seconds into the first period when Macenauer stole the puck from a pair of Lewiston defensemen in the low slot and picked the top right corner of the net, over Delmas’ glove side, to give his team a 1-0 lead.

That was as close to the net as Rouyn-Noranda got the rest of the period.

Lewiston, meanwhile, snapped its scoreless drought at 111 minutes a 50 seconds when Steeven Jacques netted his first one at 5:18, sliding the puck 5-hole past Lafleur on a feed from Pier-Olivier Morin. Jacques added another at 15:29, catching Lafleur out of position with a shot to the top left corner of the net as the former PEI netminder dipped his blocker shoulder to take away the 5-hole.

In the second, the Huskies doubled up the Maineiacs to even things up.

Macenauer finished a perfect tic-tac-toe play on the power play to tie the game at two at 9:29 of the middle frame.

The Maineiacs came back at 11:39 and made it 3-2 when Danick Paquette stole a clearing attempt at the top of the right circle and picked the top right corner of the net over Lafleur’s glove.

But the Huskies just wouldn’t go away. Jean-Sebastien Burube knotted the game at three with a wrist shot from the right circle at 17:42 of the second to send the contest to the second intermission even.