LEWISTON — The puck looked like it was on a tee, waiting for Etienne Brodeur to take a swing at it.

He hit a home run.

With 6:26 remaining in regulation of a wacky game against Gatineau on Sunday in the Lewiston Maineiacs’ final regular season home game, Brodeur triggered the most intense goal celebration in a long time at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee, batting a popped-up puck out of the air and into the net for his improbable 50th goal of the season.

“I’ll have to look at it again,” Brodeur said. “I think it went up into the air, and I don’t know how it got there. It was a rebound or something. I just know I saw it go in, I was pretty happy.”

Asked if he felt at the beginning of the season if he’d ever have a chance to reach this milestone, he never hesitated.

“Never, never,” Brodeur said. “At the start of the year, I was thinking maybe 30 if I worked hard. But 50? Never. Not a chance.”

With the lights dimmed in celebration, and the team’s goal song blaring, Brodeur skated slowly backwards to the right corner of the ice to Gatineau keeper Francois Lacerte’s left. He held his arms out to the side, his smile visible to nearly every one of the 2,701 on hand to witness the feat. His teammates surrounded him, pretending to take his picture as he posed.

“I never thought it would be that hard to get one goal,” Brodeur said. “Every time you’re on the ice, you hold the stick a little tighter. By far, this one was the hardest one to get.”

“I’m happy for him that he got it, and that there’s a couple of games left,” Lewiston coach J.F. Houle said.

Houle also said that while it’s been exciting to watch Brodeur in his quest for 50, the last few games have been tougher because everyone could tell that last step was eating away at him mentally.

“I think they (his linemates) were trying a little too much, and that’s why they weren’t connecting the last few games,” Houle said. “When you’re so close like that, you have to stop thinking about it. The more you think about it, the harder it is.”

“It’s been hard,” Brodeur admitted. “Everybody said don’t think about it, but I was thinking, and that’s why it was hard. Coach said I was cheating sometimes, and that’s true, so now that I have it, I think I can come back to my normal game.”