What started out as a rout turned into a valuable teaching tool — for the players and the coaches.

The Lewiston Maineiacs raced out to a five-goal lead in the first period Friday in Rimouski, and ran the lead to six before taking their foot off the gas pedal in the third period. The Oceanic took advantage, popping in four goals to make a game of it late in the final frame before the Maineiacs escaped with a 7-5 victory in front of 2,981 at the Colisee de Rimouski.

“I’m happy with the two points, but that’s about it,” Lewiston coach J.F. Houle said. “This team has to learn to play 60 minutes of hockey. They started to play selfish in the third, took bad penalties. They have to learn, and I will as well.”

Cruising through two periods with a healthy 7-1 edge and a 29-18 advantage on the shot clock, Houle pulled Lemay in favor of backup Dwayne Rodrigue. Seven shots and three goals later, Lemay reentered the game.

“They sent a lot of shots at Dwayne, in his defense,” Houle said. “I was trying to give Adrien a break. he’s played a lot of games, and he’s going to be playing a lot of games, and I looked at it as a chance to give him a break.”

The Oceanic tacked on one more against Lemay to pull within a pair at 7-5, but that’s as close as they got, despite a penalty to captain Billy Lacasse in the game’s final two minutes.

“We will all sit down and have a big meeting tomorrow to talk about the way we finished the game,” Houle said.

Lewiston began the game with a bang. Stefan Fournier scored twice and Sam Carrier added another in the game’s first five minutes against Rimouski backup Philippe Tremblay, in for an injured Mathieu Dopud. Lewiston followed Rimouski’s lone first-eriod tally with another set of three rapid-fire goals, two from Matthew Bissonette and another from Cameron Critchlow to build a 6-1 lead.

“It was a great start, we played awesome in the first,” Houle said.

The teams played evenly through the second, and Lewiston added to its lead on an Etienne Brodeur shorthanded tally at the 17:54 mark, giving the visitors a seven-goal advantage into the second intermission.

Lewiston has a day off Saturday to travel to Drummondville, where the Maineiacs will skate against the Voltigeurs on Sunday. The team concludes its three-game roadie in Shawinigan on Tuesday.