The Maine Nordiques had a team meeting Saturday morning and it paid off.
Part of that meeting spoke about attention to detail. One of the things coach Matt Pinchevsky wanted was the Nordiques not to back down to the North American Hockey League East Division-leading New Jersey Titans.
The Nordiques heeded Pinchevsky’s advice, defeating the Titans 2-0 at The Colisee in Lewiston.
“We hit a lot of details and had a lot of fun,” Pinchevsky said. “We said enough is enough.”
The Nordiques have now won three of their past four games and are 15-22-5 (35 points) this season. They sit in sixth place in the East Division.
The Titans are now 31-12-2 (64 points).
Gus Holt earned the shutout, stopping 40 shots.
“He did a really good job settling in the net and making sure he sees (the puck) and saves it, making sure he’s having fun in the cage,” Pinchevsky said. “I think he had a blast. When he saluted our amazing fans, you could feel the electricity got a little bit higher in the building.”
The game remained scoreless until midway through the third period when defenseman and Brown commit Nicholas Bernado scored his fifth goal of the season.
“That’s part of his responsibilities to the team, make sure our power play gain momentum,” Pinchevsky said. “If he gets on the board, that’s even better; that’s the objective. I think our power play, both units helped us gain momentum all night long. Again, we won the special teams battle. Our (penalty kill) was perfect.”
It was the lone shot to get by Titans goalie Ben Charette, who made 27 saves.
Defenseman Matt Connor added the empty-net goal with 15 seconds remaining in the game.
Tyler Gaulin had an assist on both goals.
The Nordiques take on the Northeast Generals in Attleboro, Massachusetts on Monday at 1:30 p.m. The teams meet at The Colisee on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
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