Maine Hockey Journal

Hawes returns lifts Maineiacs to comeback win

Lewiston, ME – Cole Hawes scored early in the third period goal to cap a three-goal comeback in his first game back since injuring his arm two months ago as the Lewiston Maineiacs came back for a 5-2 victory over the Chicoutimi Sagueneens in front of 1,941 at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee.

For the second consecutive game, the Maineiacs fell behind by multiple goals only to come from behind to win it in the third period.

The Maineiacs fell down 2-0 early in the second period. However, goals from Stefan Fournier and Antoine Houde-Caron tied the game a two heading into the third.

Just 3:19 into that third frame, Hawes redirected a pass from Sam Carrier into the back of the net to give Lewiston the 3-2 lead.

“So far this year I have had two injuries, you know. So I’ve played probably the least amount of games on the team. I really want to get more games in,” said Hawes following the game. “I want the coach to be confident when he puts me out in the playoffs. I’m going to do my part.”

And what a part he played on Sunday, as Hawes had a goal and a pair of assists. Fournier had a goal and an assist, and Samuel Carrier assisted on three of Lewiston’s five goals.

With Christophe Lalonde and Nicolas Therrien in the box for roughing, Chicoutimi took advantage of the extra ice and a Lewiston turnover in the Sagueneens defensive end to break a scoreless tie with 2:24 remaining in the first period. Dominic Poulin deflected a shot to Guillaume Asselin who took of on a two-on-one with Jonathan Bonneau. Asselin elected to call his own number and rifled home his 23rd goal of the year over the glove of Nicholas Champion.

Less than two minutes into the second period, the Sagueneens extended their lead to 2-0 with a power play goal. Champion was beat glove side again, and by the same culprit with Asselin scoring on assists from Charles Hudson and Therrien.

That would be the last goal Champion would allow on the afternoon, as he went on to make 18 saves on 20 shots to improve to 24-9 on the season.

“We started off a little slow to today,” admitted Hawes “The boys just kind of came in and we kind of talked about (falling behind again), you know. We don’t get down on ourselves…we have a bunch of great guys in the room. We always end up coming out and having good periods. I’m really happy with the outcome.”

At 9:36 of the second period, Lewiston was finally able to solve Chicoutimi goaltender Francis Desrosiers.

Desrosiers hardly looked like a goaltender, who came into the afternoon with a GAA north of four, as he was phenomenal during the first half of the game until Antoine Houde-Caron beat him to bring the Maineiacs within one. Sam Henley and Alex Zafiris chipped in with helpers on Caron’s 12th goal of the year.

A few extra curriculars seemingly sparked the Maineiacs, as Sam Finn’s fight did on Friday’s 5-4 comeback win over Rimouski. After a suspect hit on Etienne Brodeur went without diesoline from the officials, the Maineiacs took matters into their own hands. After the laundry was sorted out, Ian Saab, Jess Tanguy and Asselin wound up in the box with roughing minors at 17:40.

Less than two minutes later, Fournier put home his 15th goal of the season to tie the game at 2-2 with 56 seconds remaining in the second period.

“After we got that second goal I thought we were just flying. It’s just a matter of getting that one spark, and that second goal was certainly a spark,” said Lewiston Head Coach Jean-Francois Houle.

After scoring the game-winner earlier in the period, Hawes added an assist on Olivier Dame-Malka’s goal to make it 4-2 with just over six minutes left.

As solid a Desrosiers was in the first half of the game, he was as shaky in the third period. He would end the day with 28 saves on 33 shots and fell to 10-17 on the season.

Matthew Bissonnette put things out of reach a minute later with his 6th of the season to make it a three-goal game.

For the Maineiacs, it is a hard fought win, however Coach Houle warns that if the slow starts don’t begin to fade away it will begin to cost them games.

“I’m happy that we showed a lot of character to come back, but I’m not happy with our starts. It’s going to come back and haunt us if we don’t get better in the first period.”

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