LEWISTON — Resident Mainer Oli Genest earned a playoff spot for the Maine Nordiques.
The Sanford native’s goal in overtime gave the Nordiques a 5-4 win over the New Jersey Titans in an NAHL East Division game at The Colisee on Saturday night. The teams will see each other in the first round of the playoffs later this month.
“I was just trying to get to a spot where Tony Achille could find me,” Genest said. “He made a great pass and it was able to go in — it was great.”
Maine Nordiques head coach Matt Pinchevsky credits assistant coach Lincoln Merrill for getting the duo on the ice.
“Oliver Genest is someone who’s steadily growing his game, developing his game,” Pinchevsky said. “He deserves minutes in situations like that. Coach Merrill was putting combinations for overtime, and he saw an opportunity for someone who’s consistently creating scoring chances. He paired him with someone who he has familiarity with and got a ton of speed in Tony Achille.”
Genest’s goal, his second of the game, was also part of a come-from-behind victory.
Maine (32-24-3, 67 points) started the third period with some energy and forward Kellen Murphy chipped the puck past Titans (37-17-4, 78 points) goalie Marino Ramirez to get the Nordiques within 4-3 just after the five-minute mark. Brendan Gibbons and Nicholas Bernardo had the assists.
“The boys had tremendous excitement in the second intermission and more hungry to continue to win the battle versus accepting what they thought might happen,” Pinchevsky said. “We weren’t trying to hope to win this game, we had to, and that’s what we did.”
New Jersey coach Craig Doremus said Saturday’s game is a bump in the road. The Titans had their six-game winning streak snapped with the loss.
“We can’t wait to seem them two weeks from now,” Doremus said of facing the Nordiques in the playoffs. “I don’t think we played our best 120 minutes of hockey (this weekend), we played a good 105 or so. We have a lot of faith and conviction of who we are that’s not going to be determined by one game in overtime.”
Gibbons evened the game at 4-4 on the power play with his shot from the slot, with Bernardo recording his second assist of the period.
New Jersey’s Michael Young got the goal scoring started in the first period when he skated down the right wing and received a pass from former Twin City Thunder forward Levente Keresztes at the right circle. Young shot the puck into the half-open net, giving the Titans a 1-0 lead 1:48 into the game.
Chris Battaini extended New Jersey’s lead 53 seconds later when his shot beat Nordiques goalie Kael DePape.
“It was a really good start; I thought we were really opportunistic and took advantage of a couple of breakdowns by them,” Doremus said. “We were able to find the back of the net twice.”
The Nordiques struggled early in the first period at generating offense, including on the first power play opportunity of the game, when they lost three offensive faceoffs.
Genest did get Maine’s offense going when he scored on a breakaway by beating Ramirez 17:39 into the opening period.
“I was lucky enough the puck bounced over a defenseman’s stick and I was able to make a play,” Genest said. “It was good, we have been struggling scoring of late and everybody is trying their best to get the team on the board.”
The second period started with a fight 10 seconds in when a Titans player went into the boards hard. Anthony Califiore, a University of Maine recruit of the Titans, and Patrick Schmeidlin of the Nordiques dropped the gloves. Both got five minutes for fighting and a 10-minute misconduct, but Califiore also got an instigator minor.
Maine couldn’t score on the man-advantage, but on its second power play of the period, Aidan Coupe found the back of the cage at the 4:33 mark to tie the game at 2-2. Evan Orloff and Tony Achille had the helpers.
“We have (defenders) with elite vision and Evan Orloff showcased off his by vision-finding Coupe,” Pinchevsky said. “Coupe made a good play on the back door. There goalie is a first-save goalie. There was no save to make there; it just went beyond him. It was a great power-play play.”
The game didn’t remain tied for long when Keresztes snapped the puck from the right circle past DePape 26 seconds later for a 3-2 Titans lead. The goal ended DePape’s night in the Nordiques crease and he was relieved by Thomas Heaney.
“I thought it was a very good response by Levy,” Doremus said. “Levy’s minutes picked up throughout the game and I thought he did a good job pacing us tonight.”
New Jersey extended its lead when a delayed penalty was coming to Maine, but the Titans kept possession. They moved the puck around the offensive zone, a Marcus Sang shot bounced off Heaney’s pads and Brendan Dumas put home the rebound nearly 13 minutes into the second period for a 4-2 lead. Dominik Bartecko also picked up an assist on the goal.
The Nordiques end the regular season next weekend, hosting the Philadelphia Rebels on Friday (7:05 p.m.) and Saturday (7 p.m.).
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