Two key players on the Maineiacs’ roster will be game-time decisions on Friday.

Vladislav Balaz, one of the team’s more proficient scoring forwards who attended Los Angeles Kings’ training camp last week, will be day-to-day with a shoulder injury. Balaz returned to the team this week with the injury, and will seek treatment from Central Maine Orthopedics.

Alexandre Picard suffered a concussion last Friday in the opener at Baie-Comeau. He was cleared to play the following day at Chicoutimi, and felt fine on Sunday, but the symptoms reappeared on Monday, prompting team officials to sit him out. If Picard’s symptoms disappear, he will be able to play on Friday.

Contract woes

Richard Stehlik is healthy, and he wants to play hockey. He just recently returned from the Nashville Predators’ training camp, and is eager to take the ice for the Lewiston Maineiacs. One problem though: He is still under contract with his former team in Slovakia with which he played during the summer months.

“These issues can be tricky,” said Maineiacs’ general manager Normand Gosselin. “The process might take five minutes to sort out, or it can take two weeks.”

Stehlik is allowed to practice with the team, but is restricted from playing in games.

His agent is currently talking to both the Predators and to his team in Slovakia, trying to iron out the issues.

“Nashville has told us that they’d rather he played in North America,” said Gosselin. “We have to be careful in these situations, though, and he won’t play unless we know for sure that they will let him.”

Davis returns

Matt Davis, for whom the Maineiacs traded during the draft this year, returned to the team this week after spending time with the Nashville Predators of the NHL. Davis, 19, will be the team’s starting goaltender this weekend for the home opener.

“He brings a leadership quality to the team,” said head coach Mario Durocher of his goaltender. “He works hard, and that rubs off on the rest of the team.”

Last weekend, Brandon Verge allowed eight goals on 43 shots in the team’s two losses.

Mooseheads sold

Another familiar former NHL star has purchased a team in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

According to a press release on the league website this week, Bobby Smith, who played with Montreal and with Minnesota/Dallas while in the NHL, has purchased from Moosehead Brewery, Ltd. its 64 percent of the team’s shares. Both sides agreed not to release the particulars of the sale, which was approved in a special board meeting of the members of the OMJHL.

The team will remain the Moosheads and will keep the current logo through the 2006-07 season thanks to a deal worked out between Smith and the brewery.

Smith, the former general manager of the Phoenix Coyotes, will take over as the President of the Board of Directors for the team. He joins Patrick Roy and Guy Carbonneau as owners with a background in the NHL. All three played on the 1985-86 Montreal Canadiens’ team that captured the Stanley Cup.

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