Maine Hockey Journal

Tanguy’s third period heroics snap Maineiacs losing streak

Lewiston, ME – The month of September can’t get over fast enough for the Lewiston Maineiacs. After winning their home opener, the Maineiacs had been hard-pressed to find a victory as of late, losing their last four games.

However, Jess Tanguy scored two, third period, goals as the Maineiacs spilt the weekend series with a 2-1 win over the Acadie-Bathurst Titan in front of 1,839 at the Androscoggin Colisee on Saturday night.

It hasn’t been a lack of effort from the Maineiacs; they outnumbered the Titan in scoring chances, but just couldn’t find the back of the net.

“We found a way to win tonight,” said Maineiacs head coach JF Houle. “We got a lot of guys who worked hard.”

“I’m proud of the boys. They bounced back pretty good.”

With the score 0-0, Lewiston had a magnificent opportunity to break the deadlock with a double minor against Bathurst defenseman Jeremie Fraser, only to fail finding the back of the net.

Shortly after the penalty was over, 16 seconds to be exact, the Titan scored as Christophe Losier drove home a rebound in the slot, by Maineiacs goalie Nicholas Champion with 46 seconds left in the second period.

Maineiacs were left visibly frustrated.

“In the room before the third period, everyone was talking about it, how it was a game we had to win,” Tanguy said in his native French. “We had to recognize there’s more than one person that had to do the job, we are a team and we had to do it together. We did that in the third.”

The Maineiacs finally broke through at 5:46 of the third period as Tanguy’s shot ricochet of Titan goalie Dereck Tait’s skate, from behind the net, after he skated into the zone on a partial breakaway.

Tanguy gave the Maineiacs a 2-1 lead with eight minutes to play, beating Tait with snap shot.

Nicholas Champion played in net for the second game in a row since returning from NHL training camp with Montreal, making 21 saves on 22 shots.

Lewiston ends the month on Wednesday when begin a four game road trip to Rouyn-Noranda and Val d’ Or.

NOTES: Maineiacs forward Matthew Bissonnette will be out six-to-eight weeks with a broken bone. Christopher Lalonde returned to the lineup after serving a five-game suspension in a preseason game in Moncton.

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