Lewiston, ME – After being down 4-0 the Drummondville Voltigeurs came to play.

Drummondville scored four unanswered goal to force overtime, and Sean Couturier scored his second goal of the game with only 16.8 seconds left overtime to defeat the Lewiston Maineiacs, 5-4, in front of 2, 243 fans at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee.

The Maineiacs has been in a slump as of late collecting only three of 16 points in their last eight games (1-6-1). Still, Lewiston Maineiacs coach J.F Houle saw positives from a tough loss.

“I am mad that they came back, but I thought we worked hard,” he said. “We played hard for 55 minutes. There was that three minutes stretch where they scored two goals. It’s going to happen in a hockey game. They came back and beat us in overtime. There are a lot of positives out of this game.”

Antoine Houde-Caron would get the Maineiacs on the board first as he potted home a rebound that Drummondville netminder Guillaume Nadeau couldn’t control just 54 seconds into the game. Ian Saab and Cole Hawes recorded the assists.

“I was pleased with the quick start and I thought our power play was pretty good,” Houle said. “I thought all four lines worked hard.”

Olivier Dame-Malka would strike on the power play to put Lewiston up 2-0 with a blast in the high slot at the 7:23 mark of the opening period. Samuel Carrier and Michael Chaput set the goal up.

Stefan Fournier made it 3-0 heading into the first intermission as he notched his 17th goal of the season with a minute remaining. Matthew Bissonnette set him up with in the slot and Fournier had half the net to shoot at.

“The Maineiacs have a lot of speed and skill,” said Drummondville head coach Mario Duhamel. “You can’t take them lightly.”

Houde Caron got a gift when Dominic Graham – who replaced Nadeau in net after the first period – passed the puck to Houde-Caron, who proceeded to slap it into the net to make it 3-0. The unassisted effort came at the 5:57 mark of the second period.

The two fights changed the entire complexion of the game in the middle of the second period.

Cameron Critchlow dropped the gloves with Mathieu Guertin and Bryce Milson fought Maxime Brouillard.

“I think Guertin did a great job to bring the momentum on our side,” Duhamel said. “The guys on the bench were ready to go to war.”

Houle didn’t think the fights changed the game.

“Personally, I don’t think the fights changed (the game),” he stated. “I think it was the goals.”

The Voltigeurs got on the board six minutes remaining in the second as Simon Tardif-Richard broke in all alone and was able to beat Andrey Makarov.

Drummondville made it a game in the third. André Bouvet-Morrissette notched his 12th goal of the season as the puck just went under crossbar at the 4:39 mark. Assists went to Jonathan Brunelle and Francis Lambert-Lemay.

“Trailing by three, you can never quit, especially this close to the playoffs,” Duhamel stated. “We have to show we never quit.”

Only 42 seconds later Sean Couturier notched his 33rd goal of the season to pull the Voltigeurs within one. Assists went to Ondrej Palat and Mathieu Guertin.

“With Sean Couturier playing every other shift, you got the best player in the world on the ice every-other shift, things are going to happen” Houle added.

Bouvet-Morrissette tied the game at 4-4 with a blast right after the Maineiacs killed a penalty with 5:19 remaining in the game.

In overtime, both sides had an opportunity to score on the power play. Drummondville stopped Lewiston, but a bad break gave the Voltigeurs the victory.

With Krill Kabanov taking a penalty with less than a minute to play, Drummondville completed the surprising comeback with only 16.8 second left as a scrum ensued in front of the net. Couturier found the rebound and lifted a backhander over a sprawled Lewiston netminder into the open net. Assists went to Jean-Philippe Mathieu and Lars Lundin.

“I don’t know if it showed our experience, but one thing for sure, it’s shows our character,” said Duhamel. “I think since the beginning of the season, we’ve been a surprise in the league. “Nobody expected to see us in the top five this year.”

“Everybody was seeing us in the middle of the pack.”

Both teams were 1-for-2 on the power play.

Andrey Makarov made 36 saves in the loss. Nadeau made seven saves for Drummondville and Graham turned aside 16 shots.

NOTES: Drummondville’s Trent Samuels-Thomas was a member of the Portland Junior Pirates AJHL team last season.