Lewiston ME – There was a playoff atmosphere at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee on Friday night as 2,813 fans filled the barn to watch the Lewiston Maineiacs play host to the Chicoutimi Saguenéens.

With old faces on the visitor’s bench, the Maineiacs played a physical game in a 5-3 victory.

“We had a lot of adversity tonight,” said Lewiston Maineiacs Head Coach Jean-Francois Houle. “We took some bad penalties at bad times, but we fought back and killed all of them.”

An old cliché is that your goaltender has to be your best penalty killer, and Lewiston goalie Adrien Lemay was the best penalty killer in the second period.

He made two big saves in the period and he shutdown the Saguenéens on a 5-on-3 power play.

“Adrien made some big saves again to keep us in the game,” Houle added. “There were three 5-on-3′s and we are lucky it didn’t backfired.”

Lemay made 22 saves in the victory.

Maineiacs defenseman Eric Bonawitz, a Lewiston native, moved up to play forward and the move paid off. With 6:15 remaining in the first period, he shot the puck on net and somehow the puck managed to cross the goal line.

The goal gave the Maineiacs the 1-0 lead.

“Putting me at forward gave me a chance,” said Eric Bonawitz. “I beat the (defenseman) somehow and I went to shoot it, they pulled my stick so I missed the puck, the goalie went down and I had it on my backhand – I slipped (the puck) around.”

Bonawitz was an assist shy of recording a “Gordie Howe Hat Trick”, which is hockey lingo for when a player picks up a goal, an assist and a fight in the same game.

Moments later, Lewiston went on the power play, but it was Chicoutimi that got on the board. Marc-Andre Levasseur intercepted a Mathieu Brisebois pass and snapped the puck past Adrien Lemay nearly two minutes after Bonawitz had scored.

The Maineiacs retook the lead on the man advantage when Pierre-Olivier Morin found Matthew Bissonnette in the high slot who lit the lamp against his former team 3:20 into the second period.

“The guy gave me a shooting lane and the goalie peaked over to his left, I shot to the right,” Matthew Bissonnette said. “I think I surprised them.”

Bissonnette found Samuel Carrier at the top of the right circle and Carrier picked the left corner to give Lewiston the 3-1 lead 6:53 into the second period.

“(Chicoutimi) helped me out, they could have kept me there,” Bissonnette added. “Who knows what would have happened.”

Bissonnette has 10 goals and 18 assists in 23 games since the trade with Chicoutimi.

Eric Gelinas found the back the net against his former club, the Lewiston Maineiacs, on an end-to-end rush as he scored on his own rebound 9:50 into the second stanza.

“It was weird to see the Maineiacs jersey on the other and warm-up on (the other) side,” Eric Gelinas stated. “It was a good feeling scoring on Adrien.”

Jess Tanguay, who was a finalist for rookie of the month for February, added his 15^th goal of the season with 4:50 remaining in the middle frame. Etienne Brodeur let the initial shot go and Tanguay batted the puck into the net.

“It’s a good thing that your 17-year-olds are some of your best players right now,” Houle said. “They are on the board all the time.”

Chicoutimi started the third period with a 5-on-3 power play and they did what they had to do. Antoine Roussel put the puck home from right in front of the crease just 53 seconds into the period.

Michael Chaput added an empty net goal with 16 seconds remaining in the game.

“I was especially happy with the third period,” Houle stated. “Because when you have the lead, that’s all you have to play, get the pucks deep, kill the clock and you can take your time.”

Saguenéens goaltender Christopher Gibson made 28 stops in the loss.

Lewiston went 1-for-5 on the power play and Chicoutimi was 2-for-6.