Lewiston, ME – The Lewiston Maineiacs missed several opportunities on the power play in a 7-1 loss to the Gatineau Olympiques as Jean-Francois Houle lost his first QMJHL coaching career.

“We got to fix a couple things,” said Maineiacs Head Coach JF Houle. “We’ve been so depleted that we couldn’t get a practice in. “We will get some practice in and hopefully turn it around.”

The Maineiacs were 0-for-7 while the Olympiques were 4-for-6 on the powerplay

“We might not beat (Adrien) Lemay with that many, but we were keeping (the powerplay) simple and I think it paid off,” said Gatineau Olympiques Head Coach Jerome Dupont.

The Olympiques jumped out to a 2-0 lead with power play goals from Hugo Laporte and Christian Ouellette. Laporte’s goal came at the 3:25 mark of the opening period as Samuel Finn was off for interference.

“We were a lot more intense (today) and today we took it to them,” said Dupont.

A little over ten minutes later, Christian Ouellete slammed one home.

The Maineiacs got on the board when the puck deflected off Stefan Fournier’s sweater just 1:32 into the second period. Samuel Finn let the initial shot go from the point and Alexander Beaton was given credit with the secondary assist.

“When we made it 2-1, we had two back door plays that if we scored, it would have been a different game,” Houle stated. “We didn’t capitalize and they capitalized on their chances.”

With 8:06 to go in the second period, Christian Ouellette answered for Gatineau.

Only 1:45 later, Tye McGinn fired the puck from the blue line, bouncing off the end boards as Jean-Gabriel Pageau had a wide open net to score his seventh of the year.

Gatineau made it 5-1 as Keven-Guerette Cherland crashed the crease to get his first as an Olympique and his 18th of the year.

McGinn made it 5-3 while on a 5-on-3 power play as Hugo Laporte and Adam Janosik set the goal up.

With 3:13 to play, Sebastien Bergeron notched his first goal of the season the powerplay.”

Tyler Piercy made his second appearance in the QMJHL and made 30 saves. Maxime Clermont was bounced back with a stellar performance as he made 30 saves.

“We had a meeting with (Clermont) last night to get him on track, I think it paid off,” Dupont added.

NOTES: Matt Boyle returned from his finger injury, but saw limited action. Nick Huard will head back to the Woodstock Slammers