LEWISTON – Moncton forward Matt Marquardt was off for the better part of 65 minutes against the Lewiston Maineiacs on Thursday night.

The Wildcats, in general, were off, too.

But Moncton kept the game tied, and Marquardt played the hero’s role in the shootout.

After seeing two teammates deke Maineiacs’ netminder Jonathan Bernier and fail to score, Marquardt reached back and fired a snap shot over Bernier’s glove to lift the Wildcats to a 2-1 shootout win over Lewiston in front of 2,005 at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee.

“I kind of struggled throughout the game,” said Marquardt. “I know Bernier is a solid goaltender. He’s one of the best in the league, and I saw the other two guys go 5-hole on him, so I leaned my shoulder a bit, and it looked like he bit. I saw top shelf wide open, so I took it.”

“I didn’t know at all where he was going to shoot,” said Bernier. “It was the first time I think I see him in a shootout. I knew he wanted to shoot, and he made a pretty good shot.”

The win is Moncton’s second in a row after splitting a pair with the St. John’s Fog Devils last weekend.

“We got a great game out of our goalie, and we held the fort,” said Moncton coach John Torchetti. “We’re young. It was a good road win for this team.”

Lewiston salvaged a point in the shootout loss, but had its three-game home winning streak snapped.

“We knew it would be a one-goal game,” said Maineiacs’ assistant coach Jeff Guay. “We figured it would be one small mistake, win or lose, that would decide it.”

Lewiston sent three skaters – Eric Castonguay, Pierre-Luc Faubert and David Perron – to the line for the Maineiacs’ attempts in the shootout, and all three missed, though Castonguay banked his shot off the left post.

Moncton goaltender Jhase Sniderman played a solid game for the Wildcats, turning aside 37 shots in regulation and overtime to earn the win.

“He deserved all three stars tonight,” Marquardt said of his netminder. “He was incredible. Some of the saves he made at the key times were unbelieveable.”

Both teams struggled to find offense early, and both Bernier and Sniderman saved a pair of solid scoring attempts in the first 10 minutes, but it took until 17:05 for either team to light the lamp.

Lewiston finally converted on a first-period power play attempt, and it was high-flying rookie David Perron notching his team-leading seventh goal to put the home team ahead. Perron curled from behind the net after following a missed shot, cruised through the left circle and surveyed his options. Choosing to shoot, the rookie banked the puck off the right post and into the net.

Moncton took advantage of a gift off the stick of Lewiston defenseman Marc-Andre Crete in the second to pull even. Crete retreated into the right corner in his defensive zone, curled to the middle and stickhandled across the top of Bernier’s crease. Moncton forward Randy Cameron poked the puck from Crete after slashing the defenseman’s stick, swung it to his forehand and swept it past Bernier’s outstretched left pad.

The Maineiacs travel to Saint John to face the Sea Dogs on Sunday before returning to the Colisee for a Wednesday faceoff with the Victoriaville Tigres.