The Mooseheads take charge to upend Lewiston.
By Justin Pelletier
Staff Writer

LEWISTON – It was supposed to be a relatively easy Friday night for the Lewiston Maineiacs against the cellar-dwelling Halifax Mooseheads.

Instead, it will be a rough weekend.

Two early goals were all the Mooseheads needed as solid defense and exceptional play from Jason Churchil shut down the Maineiacs’ offense, helping Halifax to a 4-2 win over Lewiston in front of 2,193 fans at the Central Maine Civic Center. It was the only game of the weekend for the Maineiacs and the first home game since Oct. 5.

“It’s disappointing for sure,” said Maineiacs coach Mario Durocher. “I think the effort was there tonight, but we don’t have the kind of team that can recover from being down two goals early, and we need better goaltending than an .850 save percentage.”

The Mooseheads recently signed veteran forward George Davis, and his size and tough play added fuel to a chippy game that helped Halifax throw a wrench into the Maineiacs’ speedy forward lines.

“I think he made a big difference for us tonight,” said Halifax coach and former Maine Mariners player Shawn MacKenzie. “He helped to bolster a lineup that is very young. I think we’re starting to learn to play better as the season wears on.”

For Lewiston, Gabriel Balasescu and Alexandre Picard both missed the end of the game due to separate on-ice incidents. In the second period, Balasescu took a spearing penalty, which carried an automatic game misconduct, and in the third, Picard became livid after the referees blew a two-line pass call, and was called for a misconduct.

“We missed those two players at the end of the game for sure,” said Durocher. “Their style of of play would have helped us out.”

Lewiston nearly tied the score on a short-handed bid by Alex Bourret and Picard, but Churchil made one of his 43 saves on the night to deny the forwards.

Two minutes later, with Lewiston again short-handed, Halifax extended the lead to two again on an Evan Jones goal from in close.

The Maineiacs once again excited the crowd at 12:54 with a goal to pull within one, this time taking advantage of one of their nine power-play opportunities.

Richard Stehlik’s shot from the point made it through a screen and bounced off of Churchil. In front, Bourret swatted at the fumbling puck, poking it past Churchil. The puck didn’t initially cross the line, but balanced the red stripe after touching the post. On his way back to cover the puck, Churchil knocked it over the line.

“We couldn’t get anything by him up high tonight,” said Durocher. “The two goals we got were the result of hard work down low and they both went in low.”

Despite pulling Brandon Verge (24 saves) with 1:45 remaining in the game, Lewiston couldn’t get another by the quick goaltender.

“He’s coming long well,” said MacKenzie. “He’s very young, but I think he’s starting to turn a lot of heads now. He’s a big guy in the net and he is starting to step up under pressure.”

Halifax grabbed the lead early in the first period, capitalizing on the first of its two power plays on the night just 1:17 into the game.

With Bobby Gates in the box for the Maineiacs, the Mooseheads dumped the puck deep. On his way out to play the puck, Verge tripped and fell against the netting on the back of the net. Frederik Cabana snared the puck behind the net and floated a pass off the high slot, where Jim Sharrow corralled the pass and fired a lazy wrister into the open net for the 1-0 lead.

“We don’t have the team to get down early and come back,” said Durocher. “We have to have solid goaltending from start to finish. We didn’t come out with intensity and it showed.”

Halifax pushed the lead to two at 11:09 of the period, again catching the Maineiacs in a tough position with three defending players behind the net. Matthew Augustine emerged from the scrum behind Verge and fired a pass to the right point. Steve Villeneuve settled the puck and let a wrist shot go to the high right corner, beating Verge high to the glove side.

Lewiston got one of the goals back at 7:13 of the second period when Marc-Andre Cliche swept a second rebound past Churchil after two stellar saves.

The goal came at the end of a flurry of activity in front of the Mooseheads’ goaltender. Mathieu Aubin, Vladislav Balaz and Jonathan Paiement all got solid shots off against Churchil, but he turned all of the offerings away. On Cliche’s goal, Paiment got a good shot off from the left point. The rebound came to Pierre-Luc Faubert, who slammed the puck into Churchil’s chest. That rebound ricocheted to Cliche, who swatted it inside the left post to pull the Maineiacs within one.

Lewiston leaves next Wednesday on another three-game trip before returning home for three in six nights during the first week of November.

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