Drummondville, QC—The Lewiston Maineiacs were Jekyll and Hyde this weekend. After a strong start Friday night, it was anything but a strong start on Saturday night. The Drummondville Voltigeurs took Game Two, 5-1 in front of 2,434 fans at Centre Marcel Dionne.

“That was the difference in the game, they started the game well, we played 40 minutes instead of 60,” said Lewiston Maineiacs Head Coach Jean-Francois Houle. “We can’t do that against Drummondville.”

The Voltigeurs jumped out to a 1-0 lead 34 seconds into the game when Gabriel Dumont potted his second goal of the series. Exactly two minutes later, Sean Couturier also added his second goal of the playoffs.

“They just outworked us,” Houle said about Drummondville’s start. “Pure and simple, hardwork. They moved their feet, they forechecked, that was pretty much it.”

Jonathan Brunelle stretched Drummondville’s lead to three goals 7:53 into the first period.

Couturier drove to the net, Adrien Lemay made the stop on him, but Christopher Didomenico was there to put the rebound home with 46 seconds remaining in the opening period.

The Maineiacs kept the Voltigeurs off the board in the second period. The Maineiacs couldn’t convert on their chances, including a 5-on-3 power play opportunity.

“We started to think we can play with these guys,” Houle said. “We did do very good on (the 5-on-3). We had a couple of good chances, but Jake Allen made the saves.”

Matt Boyle saw his night end in the second period as he had two fighting majors in the game.

“That was a spark plug for us,” Houle said. “I think it was a turning point for us. It’s playoff time so, there will be talking going. We  need to find a way to score on them, that’s our biggest issue right now”

Stefan Fournier put Lewiston on the board on the power play 2:47 into the third period with Samuel Carrier letting the initial shot go.

The Maineiacs were 1-for-9 on the man advantage and Drummondville went 0-for-5

“We got to get our power play producing a little more,” stated Houle. “We only got one goal out of that. We got to make sure we connect better on the power play to create more offense.”

The Maineiacs couldn’t build any momentum because Dumont added his second goal of the game just 15 seconds later.

“I said before the game, I said if you score, do not get scored on the next shift,” Houle strongly stated. “After the game, I told the guys, you need to learn from this. I want to make sure they learn from this so it doesn’t happen again.”

Adrien Lemay turned aside 32 shots in the loss and Jake Allen made 13 saves for Drummondville, which now leads the first round 2-0.

Series Schedule:

Game 3
Tuesday, March 23: Drummondville at Lewiston 7:00

Game 4
Wednesday, March 24:  Drummondville at Lewiston 7:00

Game 5*
Friday, March 26:  Lewiston at  Drummondville

Game 6*
Sunday, March 28:  Drummondville at Lewiston 4:00

Game 7 *
Tuesday, March 30: Lewiston at Drummondville 7:30

* If Necessary