The referees called the penalties, the Quebec Remparts scored the goals and the Lewiston Maineiacs were again left scratching their heads after another tight road loss.

Jordan LaVallee had two goals and an assist, Alexander Radulov had three assists and Jean-Francois Bernard made 34 saves in his QMJHL debut as the Remparts skated past the Maineiacs 4-3 at the Pepsi Colisee in Quebec on Sunday. The loss came after an emotional 5-4 overtime win against Rimouski on the road on Friday, and again highlighted one of the Maineiacs’ biggest weaknesses this season: their inability to stay out of the penalty box.

“There were some calls I don’t know that we deserved, really,” said Maineiacs’ coach Clem Jodoin. “But they are part of the game. We are not playing well on the PK right now, and I don’t like that. I like to play well on special teams.”

One positive in the loss for Lewiston was again the play of Jaroslav Halak, who made several key saves to keep the Maineiacs in the game. His 36-save performance was overshadowed, though, by the rookie at the other end of the ice.

“He made a lot of good saves,” said Jodoin of Bernard. “We had our chances, and he stopped the pucks he needed to stop.”

Despite allowing the first goal of the game less than two minutes in on a tip-in by Kevin Coughlin, Lewiston knotted the score at 3:01 when Guy Belisle scored the first goal of his career on a loose rebound in front of Bernard.

And then came the penalties. Bobby Gates took a penalty at 9:03, and at 10:13 LaVallee slid the puck past Halak for the 2-1 lead.

In the second period, after playing equal to and perhaps even better than Quebec for much of the period, Lewiston’s Olivier Legault took a slashing call at 15:13. At 15:45, Josh Hennessy knocked another shot past Halak for the 3-1 lead.

Lewiston made it 3-2 on an Eric Castonguay goal at 4:46 of the third, but another penalty, this time on a questionable elbowing call to Jonathan Paiement, resulted in Quebec’s third power-play goal of the night.

“If you ask me, it is a fair check,” said Jodoin. “But then there was the Legault call that was not a good penalty.”

Alexandre Picard slid the puck past Bernard one more time at the 8:30 mark, and the Maineiacs had several chances by the top line late in the game, but the Remparts held on. Lewiston has another day off before playing consecutive road games in Chicoutimi and Victoriaville on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Maineiacs return to home ice on Friday to again face off against the Chicoutimi Sagueneens.

Injury Notes: The Maineiacs lost Nick Cowan for a while after the weekend’s games, to what the team is calling a shoulder injury. Chad Denny is feeling better and is likely to play on Tuesday or Wednesday as he recovers from a gash to his right ear and a mild concussion. Marc-Andre Cliche will learn Monday whether or not he can play on Tuesday. Jonathan Bernier has a mild injury that the team did not want to take chances on, leading to Marc-Andre Perron’s appearance as the backup on Sunday.

Bernier is day-to-day.