Maineiacs solve road woes in 5-4 win
It was a bit more scary than it should have been, but the Lewiston Maineiacs finally figured out how to win on the road Wednesday night, netting five goals and hanging on for a 5-4 victory over the Montreal Junior in front of 1,852 at the Verdun Auditorium.
"It was very much like our game Saturday (against Val d'Or)," Maineiacs' coach Don MacAdam said. "We had everybody contributing. We had more of a physical presence early, especially in the first period, and that just adds to our game."
The Maineiacs were stingy on defense, allowing the Junior to get just 26 shots on goal, 14 of which came in the third period amid a stirring comeback effort.
"We've figured out the fact that we can't be giving up as many shots as we were and expect to give ourselves a decent chance to win games," MacAdam said.
On the other end, the Maineiacs unloaded for five goals, the most the team has scored on the road this season in one game. Five different Maineiacs lit the lamp, and two — Marco Desveaux and Samuel Henley — recorded their first goals of the season.
Adrien Lemay, as has been the case all season, was big when he needed to be, especially down the stretch.
Down 5-1, Montreal started chipping away in the second. Trevor Parkes notched his second of the game late in the middle frame to pull the Junior within three. In the third, Parkes capped the hat trick early, and Jeremy Gouchie made things interesting with a goal within the game's final minute.
"They really came at us hard," MacAdam said. "You're down 5-2, you'd better start coming at us sooner or later, and they did that."
The Maineiacs continue their short road trip in Shawinigan on Thursday night, with a 7 p.m. faceoff scheduled.
Short night for Finn
Sam Finn left the game after a fight in the first period Wednesday, the victim of a new rule in the league that doesn't allow a player to remove another player's helmet on purpose during a fight. The automatic game-misconduct penalty left Lewiston without Finn for the remainder of the contest.
Lacasse a late scratch
The Maineiacs played it safe with Billy Lacasse this week, leaving him on the sidelines Wednesday with an undisclosed injury he sustained during practice Tuesday. Marco Desveaux made the most of his chance to play for the team, which was also without Mathieu Gingras (upper-body injury), netting his first goal on a fluke bounce in the opening frame.
Swine flu alert
The Moncton Wildcats have cancelled this weekend's slate of games on the heels of another cancelled game this past Sunday after the team learned this week that a pair of its players have contracted the H1N1 virus, also known as the Swine Flu.
"We will keep monitoring the situation closely and, in the near future, we will look at different scenarios to reschedule the games," QMJHL commissioner Gilles Courteau said. "The Wildcats organization was very proactive and their management team deserves a lot of credit."
