It was nearly a David slaying Goliath moment for the Lewiston Maineiacs.

The Maineiacs came close to taking a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven QMJHL semifinals, but a late comeback by the top-seeded Saint John Sea Dogs sent the game into overtime where Stephen MacAuley scored as Saint John grabbed a Game 1 victory, 5-4, in front of 5,762 at Harbour Station.

It looked ominous for the Maineiacs early on as Saint John built a 2-0 lead in the first period.

Pierre Durepos opened the scoring for Saint John when he blasted a shot from the right point, beating goalie Nicholas Champion, above the shoulder at 10:16 of the first period, followed by Steven Anthony’s goal at 13:40 as he finished off a behind-the-net pass from Stanislav Galiev to give the Sea Dogs a 2-0 lead.

With 42 seconds left in the period, Maineiacs forward Matthew Bissonnette took a cross-ice feed from Stefan Fournier, while on a two-on-one, beating Jacob DeSerres to cut the lead in half, 2-1.

The second period was all Maineiacs as they scored twice to take a 3-2 lead, starting with Jess Tanguy finding the rebound from Pierre-Olivier Morin’s shot from the top of the left circle and beating DeSerres just 1:33 into the period.

At 6:15, Kirill Kabanov, who has been on a tear recently in the playoffs, scored his sixth of the season while on the power play, redirecting the shot as he drove to the net.

The Maineiacs added to their lead in the third period, 4-2, with another special team’s goal as Antoine Houde-Caron, scored shorthanded, finishing off an odd-man rush, snapping a shot by DeSerres’ glove at the 6:02 mark.

That would end the night for DeSerres (13 saves), favor of Mathieu Corbeil-Theriault, who finished the night stopping all 13 shots he faced.

The move sparked Saint John as they scored twice within a span of 1:14, tying the game at 4-4, setting the stage for MacAuley’s goal in overtime.

Nathan Beaulieu took a pass from Zack Phillips and ripped a shot from the slot area, beating Champion at 14:28 to pull the Sea Dogs to within a goal, 4-3.

Champion, who finished the night with 26 saves on 31 shots, made a gaffe that proved costly as his clearing attempt was intercepted by Tomas Jurco and with a wide-open net tied the game at 4-4.

Saint John clearly had the momentum after that and it didn’t take long for them to capitalize in OT as Simon Despres rushed up the ice, dishing the puck off to MacAulay, streaking through the slot, beating Champion with a quick shot to complete the comeback for the Sea Dogs.

The Maineiacs will hope history repeats itself after they dropped Game 1 in OT to Montreal while having a lead evaporate in the third period as it will be a quick turnaround with Game 2 scheduled for Saturday.

NOTES: Fifth-seeded Gatineau Olympiques held on for a 2-1 win over the Quebec Remparts to take a 1-0 lead in the other QMJHL semifinal… Adam Janosik and Jacob Conrad each scored for Gatineau, while Maxime Clermont stopped 28 shots. Martin Lefebvre scored the lone goal for Quebec.