LEWISTON – Colby Gilbert and Maxime Mathieu are not usually called upon to score the Lewiston Maineiacs’ clutch goals. Their assignment, after all, is to stop the other team from scoring.

“Our line is a defensive line,” said Gilbert. “Our goal is not to get scored on, and anything we get as far as a goal is concerned is a bonus.”

In Sunday afternoon’s matinee performance against the Gatineau Olympiques, Gilbert and Mathieu hooked up to give the team and its fans a hard-earned Christmas bonus.

Faced with a 2-on-2 situation and with the teams deadlocked at 1-1, Gilbert drew his defender wide and fired a pass at Mathieu’s stick. Mathieu crashed the net, driving his defenseman toward Gatineau netminder Riley Whitlock. The puck hit his stick on the tape a red-directed into the net to put Lewiston ahead for good. Alex Bourret notched his 21st of the year just two minutes later and the Maineiacs held on for a 3-1 win over the Olympiques in front of 2,210 fans at the Colisee.

“It was just a perfect pass,” said Mathieu. “I saw Gilbert go wide and I just went right at the net.”

“I knew Max would be driving hard,” said Gilbert. “I bought a little more time by going out wide and then fired the puck at his stick. he had it in the perfect spot.”

The win is the team’s fourth in a row and fifth in six games, and moves Lewiston into a tie for ninth overall in the league standings with P.E.I. at 38 points. In the division, Lewiston remains in fourth, six points back of Rimouski but with three games in hand on the Oceanic, who lost to Drummondville on Sunday. Despite the win and the recent upswing, Maineiacs coach Clem Jodoin said that the Christmas break was welcome.

“Every team at this time has been going and going and going since August,” said Jodoin. “It’s time for a break, to let the players go back home and remember their families, their customs and where they come from.”

In Sunday’s game, though, the players showed they had one last breath of air in the tank before breaking for the holidays.

“I think except for 10 minutes in the second period, it was a good effort,” said Jodoin. “We got down, there, in that period but we came back strong.”

Rookie netminder Jonathan Bernier made several good saves in that period, and again late in the game after Gatineau pulled Whitlock with two minutes to play, to preserve the win. Bernier will miss the Maineiacs’ next two games, both on the road, playing for Team Quebec in the World Under-17 Challenge Tournament.

“This was a big weekend for him,” said Jodoin. “Now he can go and play against more people his own age and carry that confidence with him from this game and from Friday. This was important.”

Lewiston scored first for just the second time in eight games Sunday when Alexandre Picard converted on a nice drop pass from Alex Bourret and fired a wrist shot between Whitlock’s pads. Making his first start ever in the QMJHL, the young Gatineau netminder was nervous to start the game.

“I think he started to settle down after the first 10 minutes,” said Gatineau coach Benoit Groulx. “But I agree, maybe early he was a little nervous.”

The Olympiques rebounded two minutes later when Brett Morrison roofed a shot past Bernier with his team on a 5-on-4 power play.

In the second, though neither team scored, both settled old scores from two previous meetings this season, combining for 27 of the game’s 49 penalty minutes in that frame.

Mathieu tallied his game-winner at 6:24 of the third, and Bourret followed with a blast from the left circle at 8:52 to round out the scoring.