By Justin Pelletier,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – Of the eight losses the Lewiston Maineiacs have suffered in their last nine games, this one likely stings a bit more.

Mathieu Roy, Mathieu Carle and Dave Bertrand scored for Acadie-Bathurst and Gabriel Bouthillette stopped 37 shots to lead the Titan to a 3-2 win over the Maineiacs in front of 2,258 at the Colisee.

The loss is the sixth consecutive setback for the Maineiacs (5-7-0-3) and drops the team into 14th place overall in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League standings.

For the Titan, who were coming off a tough loss to the Saint John Sea Dogs the previous night, the win gave former Maineiacs coach and current Titan skipper Mario Durocher reason to smile.

“I think we played a smart road game,” said Durocher. “It’s never going to be easy against Lewiston. They play well defensively. (Maineiacs coach) Clement (Jodoin) is a good coach and you have to play smart against them.”

After facing only 10 shots and getting tagged with the loss in relief against the Sea Dogs, Bouthillette rebounded well, stopping several chances down low and on the power play.

Lewiston netminder Jonathan Bernier allowed one soft goal early, the Titan’s first of the night, and played well the rest of the way. Still, the Maineiacs weren’t able to put up more than two goals for Bernier for the seventh consecutive outing.

“We missed some chances tonight,” said Harding. “We worked this week hard on finishing and we did a bunch of scoring drills. There were pucks that were jumping off the top of sticks, and we have to work on at least being able to get those on net. We still have some more work to do, and I think we can have more quality shots that we’re getting.”

The first Titan goal came at 11:20 of the opening period on a broken play. Olivier Labelle tried to dump the puck in after picking up an errant clearing attempt at the blueline. The puck tipped off a Maineiacs defender and wound up on the left boards, where Roy was waiting. Tired and looking for a change, Roy fired a wrist shot on net that eluded Bernier.

“The first goal was a bad goal,” said Harding, “but he’s got to fight through that. He’s got to make that save.”

The Maineiacs’ gimme came three minutes later. Mathieu Aubin, who has a point in all but one game so far this season, took a long feed at the Bathurst blue line, took three strides into the zone and lobbed a wrister on net. The puck glanced off Bouthillette’s glove and into the net.

“I think the first period was pretty even,” said Durocher. “Both goalies gave up a (bad) goal but I think Bouthillette came back pretty well. He faced some good power play chances and he saved a lot of nice shots.”

In the second, the Titan took control, getting goals from Carle on a wrister from the right circle and a shorthanded tally by Bertrand on a rebound on a 2-on-2 to take a 3-1 lead.

“You want to get up on that team,” said Harding. “Saint John did that to them (Thursday), they got up on them and I don’t think they can use their offensive transition as well when you get up on them.”

The Maineiacs tried to play catch-up in the third, and succeeded in closing the gap to 3-2 on a Stefan Chaput power play goal, but only four seconds remained.

“A save here, a save there, following directions a little bit better and maybe staying out of the box on a certain power play,” said Harding when asked what might allow the Maineiacs to rebound from their six-game skid. “This team, everything is going to be so close and so tight all season long and we’re not going to score a ton of goals, so one little mistake could really hurt us.”

Lewiston returns to action Sunday against the Moncton Wildcats at 4 p.m. at the Colisee.