LEWISTON – The season is still more than 100 days away, and the accolades already are already starting to roll in for the coach of the Lewiston Maineiacs.

Hockey Canada and the Canadian Hockey League announced on Thursday that Mario Durocher will be head coach of the Canadian National Junior Team that will take part in the 2004 IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship in Finland between Dec. 26, 2003 and Jan. 5, 2004.

“I wasn’t really thinking about being the head coach,” said Durocher.

“I knew I wanted to go as an assistant with the team to Finland, but this was somewhat of a surprise to me.”

Durocher was an assistant coach for the Canadian National Junior Team at the World Championships in Halifax, Nova Scotia, last season under Marc Habscheid and has three years experience coaching in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. Prior to signing on with the Sherbrooke Castors (now the Maineiacs), Durocher coached the Victoriaville Tigres to the QMJHL championship and into the finals of the 2002 Memorial Cup.

“They take hockey very seriously in Canada,” said Durocher. “There is a lot of pressure to perform well at the world championships as a representative of Canada. Hopefully we can go out and win.”

Assisting Durocher behind the bench at the IIHF tournament will be Dean Chynoweth, a former Bruins and Islanders standout, and Jim Hulton, who led Canada’s Under-18 team to a gold medal at the 2002 Eight-Nations Cup.

Moving right along

Construction at the Central Maine Civic Center seems to be cruising along. A quick glance into the now-empty structure shows a white ceiling surrounded by white walls. Crews have wrested the old wooden seats from their metal frames for painting and cleaned out the storage area that will be the team’s locker room.

The frame of an exterior building is starting to go up on the Walnut Street side of the main building, and bids are currently out for work on the parking lot.

Later this summer, crews are expected to air-blast the exterior of the building and give it two to three coats of fresh paint. The new concrete surface that will eventually be covered in ice is nearly complete, and the new boards are likely to follow.

Double duty

Head Statistician Jim Anderschat is no stranger to keeping statistics and supervising officials. Since 1986, Anderschat has been the Supervisor of Off-Ice Officials and Official Scorer for the Portland-based AHL team, first the Maine Mariners and currently the Pirates.

“I’ll be able to do both this season,” said Anderschat, “but whereas the staff is already trained in Portland, this team will be my first priority.”

Home away from home

Maineiacs’ billet family coordinators Ron Guerin of Parent Insurance and City Council President Renee Bernier are heading up the task of building the network of families that will play an important role with the team.

Every billet (host family) will be responsible to provide a stable environment for one of the Maineiacs’ players, who are between 16 and 20 years old.

All families receive compensation from the team to help defray the increased cost on the household resulting from having a player live with them, and they also receive a complimentary pair of season tickets.

Anyone interested in the possibility of becoming a host family should contact the Maineiacs office at 783-2009 or by e-mail at [email protected].

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