LEWISTON — Both coaches went to the bullpen Wednesday night, with mixed results.

Lewiston benched Nicholas Champion after the 20-year-old netminder uncharacteristically allowed five goals in the second period. Prince Edward Island pulled rookie Maxime Lagace after he was in net for four Lewiston goals over two periods of play, even though the Rocket held the lead.

In the third, with fresh goalies at both ends of the ice, the Maineiacs and rookie Andrey Makarov outdueled the Rocket and veteran Evan Mosher. Stefan Fournier and Michael Chaput scored goals less than two minutes apart early in the final frame on Mosher and Makarov held strong at the other end, stopping all 14 shots he saw, to lift the Maineiacs to a 6-5 win over PEI in front of 1,643 at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee.

“They all count,” Mainieacs’ coach J.F. Houle said, shrugging his shoulders. “It was a weird game. Obviously it wasn’t our best game, but we found a way to win.”

The Rocket, playing short by three skaters due to injuries, a suspension and a player off to the World Junior tournament, started Lagace after the rookie shut out Cape Breton in his previous start. The move backfired, as did his attempt to reinsert his top goalie, Mosher, a 20-year-old veteran.

“You can’t give six goals on the road and expect to win a game,” PEI coach Eric Lavigne said. “We gave five bad goals in six. You can’t win like that.”

The final two Lewiston goals both snuck through Mosher’s five-hole, and neither were moving particularly quickly.

With the Maineiacs trailing by a goal, Stefan Fournier flew the zone on what he called a set play with Sam Carrier. Carrier whipped the puck out of the zone after a faceoff and Fournier raced into the PEI zone behind the Rocket defensemen. He made one move and slid the puck through Mosher’s legs to knot the game at 5-5.

“We’ve been practicing that one all week,” Fournier said.

Less than two minutes later, Michael Chaput emerged from a fracas just outside the PEI blue line near the Rocket bench. He strode twice, glided to the top of the left circle and tried to launch a slap shot. His blade hit the ice first, and then the puck, causing a delay in the shot, which apparently confused Mosher. The puck snuck through the keeper’s pads and into the cage for the winning goal.

On the other end, after a string first frame, Champion — and the rest of the team — appeared to fall asleep at the switch in the second. Twice the Maineiacs held a two-goal lead. Twice, the Rocket battled back to tie the game.

“It was a tough night,” Houle said. “I didn’t think we played that well in front of Champion, and he struggled a little bit tonight. But Mak came in and made some big saves in that third period.”

After a feeling-out process over the first 10 minutes of the contest, and after each team tried their hands at a power play (and failed), the Maineiacs turned on the jets, putting 10 shots on Lagace to the Rocket’s one on Champion.

Lewiston also put a goal on the board.

On one of several odd-man rushes in the first frame for the Maineiacs, Christophe Lalonde crossed the blue line up the left boards on a feed from Ian Saab. Cole Hawes banged his stick three times on the ice, looking for a crossing feed. Lalonde obliged, and Hawes one-timed the puck past a stretched-out Lagace to put the home team ahead, 1-0.

Hawes added another in the second to put the Maineiacs on top by a pair.

“It was a feed from Lalonde and another from Beauvillier,” Hawes said. “I just put it into the empty net both times.”

Hawes’ brother, Tyler, played for two-and-a-half seasons with the Rocket.

“That got me going a little bit, I guess,” Hawes said.

PEI rallied for a pair, including one on the power play, before t7he Maineiacs again rattled off a pair in quick succession, this time getting one each from Francis Beauvillier and Antoine Houde-Caron.

Three more Rocket goals before the end of the period, including a snipe off the left post by Ben Duffy with eight second remaining in the frame, chased Champion and put the Maineiacs behind by one.

Lewiston hits the road for its final two games before the extended holiday break, playing in Montreal on Friday and in Shawinigan on Saturday.