Montreal, QC – A late rally wasn’t enough for the Lewiston Maineiacs on Friday night as they dropped their second contest of the season, falling, 4-2, to the Montreal Junior in front of 3,241 at the Verdun Auditorium.

At the end of the day, missed opportunities and penalties led to the Maineiacs demise.

“We just needed to play better,” said Maineiacs’ head coach Don MacAdam. “We had a five minute powerplay and we barely got a shot on goal. It was one of those games where our best players weren’t our best players.”

Pierre-Olivier Morin gave the Maineiacs their fourth powerplay goal just 1:18 into the second period. Maineiacs’ defenseman Eric Gelinas, who just returned from the New Jersey Devils camp, and Zach Shannon were credited with assists on the play.

“I thought we brought some momentum back in the second, and we lost it again in third when we fumbled the puck behind the net,” MacAdam said.

Lewiston’s penalty trouble began when Sam Finn went off for boarding at the 1:39 of the second period followed by Sébastien Trudeau a short time later when he was called for a double minor high sticking penalty at the 2:44 of the period.

Montreal capitalized less than 39 seconds later when Guillaume Asselin recorded his third goal of the year. Assists went to Louis-Marc Aubry and Alex Wall.

Montreal took the lead, 2-1, after Eric Gelinas couldn’t hold the puck in the offensive zone, giving the Junior a 3-on-1 break. Maineiacs’ goalie Adrien Lemay made the initial save, but Toni Ritter found the rebound with 2:48 to play in the period.

The lead stretched to 3-1 when Evgeny Solomonov was able to get one by Lemay. Chris Thorne was credited with the lone assist. Montreal made it 4-1 with 5:35 to play in the game when Aubry notched his third point of the night while on the powerplay.

“We weren’t there to clear the puck for him (Lemay),” mentioned MacAdam on the Solomonov goal.

Lewiston, however, wasn’t done fighting as Etienne Brodeur scored his second of the season with 5:07 to play in the game. Alexis Piette was credited the lone assist.

With nothing said on the bench, the Maineiacs finally got back to what their strengths are.

“The guys don’t give up, they kept working hard,” said MacAdam. “There’s certain style when we play, we are very good. When we don’t, we really hurt our opportunity for success.”

With 58 seconds left in the game, Alexander Beaton tallied a shorthanded goal to pull the Maineiacs back within a goal, 4-3.

Adrien Lemay, playing in his fifth straight game, made 38 saves in taking the loss, while at the other end Jake Allen stopped 24 for 27 shots faced for his first victory of the season.

“I thought he played very well early in the third,” MacAdam said on Jake Allen’s performance. “Overall, we didn’t get enough scoring chances in the first half of the game at all.”

The Maineiacs were 1-for-5 on the powerplay while Montreal was 1-for-8 on the man advantage.

The Maineiacs return to the ice at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee on Sunday at 4pm to face the Chicoutimi Sagueneens.