LEWISTON – There were no league championships to hand out Sunday, but the sellout crowd at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee left satisfied anyway.

Stefan Chaput scored twice, Marc Bourgeois added another and Jonathan Bernier made 28 saves to lead the Lewiston Maineiacs to their 22nd and final home win of the regular season Sunday, a 3-1 decision over the St. John’s Fog Devils.

“We know we’re trying for home-ice advantage right now, so this was an important two points for us,” Lewiston forward Stefano Giliati said. “It’s going to be a battle to the end now, which is good, because it gets us ready for the playoffs.”

Bernier is now 5-2 in his last seven starts, having allowed 11 goals in that stretch.

On the other end, St. John’s went back to Jake Allen, who sat out a 2-1 St. John’s win Friday, in which Timo Pielmeier stopped everything in sight.

“Jake has played very well, and Timo had missed the week before,” St. John’s coach Real Paiement said. “We’re getting ready for the playoffs, we feel good about both of our goalies right now. Jake had a slow start, but he played very well after that.”

Offensively, Lewiston attacked early.

“We wanted to carry the momentum we had back in the third period of the last game,” Giliati said. “We needed a strong start.”

It worked. Marc Bourgeois fired the puck toward the net from the left corner at 2:18 of the opening period, and the puck snuck through Allen and into the net to put the home team ahead, 1-0.

The teams struggled to get into a good, working flow after that. Penalty after penalty left the game disjointed, almost choppy.

“It’s tough for the guys who don’t see much power play to get into the game,” Maineiacs assistant coach Jeff Guay said. “It’s tough, too, for the guys who are playing a lot.”

“For us, that almost helps us,” Paiement said. “With our second game on the road trip like this, it helps to slow the game down a little bit.”

Lewiston’s power play came to life, though.

Chaput scored his first of the night at 7:36 of the first on a rebound in the high slot, and in the second, he scored again, this time on a batted puck on a Chris Tutalo rebound.

“We ran a pretty good PP tonight, we had a lot of opportunities,” Chaput said.

Bernier took over from there, as Lewiston went into a defensive mode.

“I think we were a little soft in the third,” Bernier said. “The game can change quick, especially in the playoffs.”

In the third, T.J. Brennan scored a shutout-busting goal at the eight-minute mark on an open shot from the middle of the slot.

Lewiston made up ground on idle Acadie-Bathurst and is now tied for fourth in the Eastern Division standings.

Sunday’s win eliminated any chance that St. John’s could catch Lewiston for fifth. A Saint John win over Cape Breton leave the Screaming Eagles with 82 points, with just two games to play against Lewiston. Bathurst and Lewiston each have 78 points, but the Titan have a game in hand on the Maineiacs.

“It always goes to the wire,” Guay said. “Even last year, we were in first place … but the other teams were all still fighting. That’s the way this league is.”

NOTE – Three 20-year-old players – Stefano Giliati, Marc-Andre Daneau and Chris Tutalo – played their final regular-season home games Sunday, and were given commemorative plaques in a pre-game ceremony.