By Justin Pelletier,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – Jonathan Paiement swooped through the center circle, picked up the puck and descended on Moncton goaltender Josh Tordjman.

The Colisee crowd of 2,002 echoed the sound of 20,002, knowing exactly what the 20-year-old Lewiston Maineiacs defenseman was about to do. So did Tordjman. He just couldn’t stop Paiement.

The defenseman deked left, faked a shot to the right and brought the puck back to his forehand. Tordjman balked, then slid to his right but could only watch as Paiement’s shot ticked off the left post and softly bounced into the padding at the back of the cage.

Paiement’s goal on the Maineiacs’ fourth attempt in the shootout – the only shootout goal allowed by either netminder – lifted Lewiston to a 3-2 win over No. 1 Moncton on Tuesday night.

“That’s what’s been working,” said Paiement of his move,” so I had to stick with that. I saw what everyone else did before me, and they didn’t work, so I tried the other side.”

Torjdman, who is also 20, played with Paiement in a AAA summer league in Montreal six years ago, and has been friends with the Maineiacs’ blueliner ever since.

“I knew the move he was going to use,” said Tordjman. “I just didn’t know which side he was going to. If that didn’t hit the post, it wasn’t going in.”

The win in a shootout is the Maineiacs’ first in seven tries this season. It is also the first win in any kind of extra session. Lewiston had been 0-for-3 in overtime and 0-for-6 in the shootout.

“There were so many games we couldn’t find a way to win,” said Maineiacs coach Clem Jodoin. “Today, we found a way. After 10 games, to win the shootout, we made it.”

Paiement’s goal followed three futile Lewiston shootout attempts – one each from Eric Castonguay, Mathieu Aubin and Marc-Andre Cliche – and four missed shots for Moncton. Lewiston netminder Jonathan Bernier stopped two of the Wildcats’ shootout offerings, and the other two missed the net. Bernier made several highlight-reel saves among his 31 in regulation and overtime.

“I just had a feeling we were going to win the shootout,” said Bernier. “I don’t know why. Sometimes you just get that feeling.”

For Moncton, the loss is the first since Dec. 19, a span of 15 games, while for the Maineiacs, the two points extended their home-point streak to 11 games.

“The fans that came down to watch the game tonight, thank you very much because you saw a hell of a hockey game,” said Jodoin.

Moncton couldn’t stay out of the penalty box in the first period, taking nine penalties resulting in Maineiac power plays.

Lewiston committed four penalties of its own, though, and Moncton capitalized on the first two, both on odd, deflected rebounds in front of Bernier. Stephane Goulet got the first at 9:13 with the Wildcats on a 5-on-3 power play, and Nathan Welton banged the second past Bernier on the subsequent 5-on-4 at 9:41.

“We gave up the lead 2-0, (the players) could have said, Hey, they are going to kill us,'” said Jodoin, “But they didn’t. They settled down and after that we just kept grinding and grinding. I think we had more scoring chances than they had in the game.”

Lewiston pulled back to within one less than two minutes later on one of those top-notch scoring chances when Cliche potted his 27th of the season on a rebound in front of Tordjman, also on a power play.

As the period wound down, Moncton continued to send players to the penalty box. Christian Gaudet punctuated the parade at the 20-minute mark with a four-minute high-sticking call after the blade of his stick clipped Lewiston defenseman Chad Denny in the lip and drew blood.

On the ensuing 1:39 5-on-3, Lewiston managed just four shots and couldn’t solve Tordjman. With the whistle seemingly tucked away in the second, though, Lewiston and Moncton took turns taking long, outside shots with neither team able to penetrate much into the middle of the ice.

“It was a good game,” said Moncton coach Ted Nolan. “It was more of a boring trap type of game, but that’s the way Clem likes his team to play. I thought the trap went out a long time ago, especially with the red line gone, but it’s effective.”

The Maineiacs knotted the score at two at 10:12 of the middle frame on their 11th power play of the game when Castonguay sniped the top right corner of the net through traffic from the high slot.

Moncton and its entire fan base held its breath just prior to that goal after a seemingly innocent collision between Maineiacs forward Chris Tutalo and Tordjman sent the Moncton keeper sprawling. After six or seven tense minutes, during which the Wildcats’ trainer tended to Tordjman’s neck, the game resumed, with Tordjman between the pipes.