LEWISTON -- The Lewiston Maineiacs may have figured out how to put the pedal down against Quebec Major Junior Hockey League competition.
After 2-goal leads disappeared in each of their 3 previous games, the Maineiacs scored 4 goals in the third period Wednesday night at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee to pull away to a 6-1 win over the league-leading Halifax Mooseheads. David Taylor scored twice and added a pair of helpers in the victory for Lewiston, which pulled to within 6 points of Halifax in the Eastern Division.
Danick Paquette also scored twice in the win, his 11th and 12th goals of the season, as Halifax suffered only its 7th regulation loss of the year -- and worst since an identical loss to St. John's back on Oct. 10.
"We're challenging this team for first place, and we needed these 2 points before Christmas," Paquette said.
Jonathan Bernier stonewalled the Mooseheads, who played without QMJHL-leading scorer Jakub Voracek, who has returned to the Czech Republic to play for his country in the World Junior Championships. Bernier finished with 36 saves for the Maineiacs (19-12-1-1).
"I just focused myself to make the first save," Bernier said.
"As long as I stay focused, and I saw a lot of shots from the outside, it's easy to stay focused and make the save."
Lewiston led 2-0 on a first-period goal from Paquette and a 2nd-period power-play strike from Taylor, whose centering pass hit a stick in the crease and deflected through the legs of Halifax goaltender Pierre-Olivier Pelletier (15 saves).
The Mooseheads (21-7-0-4) cut the lead in half with a power-play goal of their own with under 5 minutes remaining in the second, courtesy of Ryan Hillier's 20th goal of the season.
After blowing a 2-goal lead last week en route to a shootout win over Moncton, and then following that by blowing multi-goal leads in back-to-back losses to Acadie-Bathurst, the Maineiacs were a much better 3rd-period team this time around.
"We struggled the past 2 games with the lead, and we just came out ready to play," Paquette said through Bernier, who was acting as his translator.
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