LEWISTON - "We're not done."

Lewiston Maineiacs' head coach Ed Harding was adamant Thursday that his team, though down 3-1 in its best-of-seven playoff series against Cape Breton, was far from finished.

"I woke up this morning and bounced out of bed, even earlier than normal," Harding said. "It's a game. We have to have fun with it, and the boys have to realize that they need to have some fun with it, too.

Whether practice was fun or all business remained a mystery Thursday as Harding held a closed-door session. Signs on the outside of the Colisee doors told the general public to remain outside until 1:45 p.m.

"We had a meeting, the meeting was fairly brief," Harding said. "I wanted to go over some things in the meeting and at practice and keep their focus. I didn't want anyone in the building, whether it was friends or family members, and we certainly were working on some things we didn't want Cape Breton to see. We'll see if we can take that and apply that tomorrow."

The Maineiacs face a steep battle if they hope to prolong the season beyond this weekend. Trailing 3-1, Cape Breton can close things out with a win Friday.

"That fourth one is always the toughest, though," Cape Breton coach Pascal Vincent said Thursday.

He would know.

Last season, in the league semifinals, the Eagles held a 3-1 edge over Val d'Or, but lost three in a row.

"It's a big difference when you don't have home-ice advantage," Vincent said. "Last year, even though we had a better record, we had to go on the road at the end, and that hurt us. This time, we have that advantage."

Even if the Maineiacs win Friday (7 p.m.), Games 6 and 7 would be in Sydney, Nova Scotia.

But Vincent is hoping things don't even get that far.

For Lewiston to force a Game 6, the Maineiacs will have to continue to stay away from penalties. More importantly, though, they're going to have to find some scoring.

"We've got to get some scoring," Harding said. "For one reason or another, we can't put the puck in the net. You're not going to win with one goal, and you're not going to win being oh-for on the PP."

Lewiston is the only team in the league this playoff season to be held scoreless on the power play (0-for-19).

Since allowing four Cape Breton power play goals in Game 1, Lewiston penalty kill has done well to ward off the Eagles, holding them to three goals in three games.

But the parade to the penalty box has been detrimental to the team's ability to gain and maintain momentum.

"It's not like it's been one guy or two guys, either" Harding said. It's been 10 guys, 12 guys."

After Thursday's get-together, Lewiston had the night off to prepare for Friday's showdown.

"I told them, 'If there's anybody in this locker room that's done, if you've packed up to go home, you can leave now,'" Harding said. "No one moved. That tells me, we should be ready to go (Friday) night."

Harding's expectations Thursday were pretty simple.

"I expect to win the hockey game," he said. "If we don't, we're all going home."