Lewiston heads out for a three-game swing.
The momentum is finally heading the right way for the Lewiston Maineiacs after a weekend win and tie that produced the franchise’s first three points. The trick this weekend is to make sure that the new-found focus and apparent intensity upgrade wasn’t a fluke.
Lewiston visits Baie-Comeau tonight for the teams’ third meeting of the season. The first produced a last-second win for the Drakkar, while Lewiston manhandled them in the return engagement at the Central Maine Civic Center.
“We now know that we can beat them,” said coach Mario Durocher. “If we keep playing well defensively we’ll get the team back to the same level with everyone else in the division.”
All three teams on the Maineiacs’ slate this weekend are divisional rivals, making each game that much more important.
On Friday, the Maineiacs run into the buzzsaw that is Sidney Crosby. As a rookie, Crosby leads the league in goals with 10 goals and is second in points with 18. He also has been the player of the week for the first two weeks of the season.
“The danger with him is that we have to make sure not to double team him too much,” said Durocher. “He can find the open man when you do that, and that’s just as dangerous. Against Rimouski, we think the challenge will be good for our defensemen, which have been solid all year.”
After Saturday off, the team plays one of its two October home games on Sunday against the Quebec Remparts. Last Sunday, the Maineiacs escaped the Central Maine Civic Center with a 2-2 tie after spotting the Remparts a 2-0 lead in the third period.
“We need to move the puck better from our own zone and not let one person do all of the work,” said Durocher. “We got caught a bit on that this weekend.”
The other aspect of the game the team worked heavily on this week was the power play. In six games this season, Lewiston is just 5-for-41 with an extra attacker.
“They have to learn to be patient,” said Durocher. “We only have one guy on the team that played on the power play last season, so I just have to keep reminding them that you aren’t going to score every time. On the power play, 1-for-4 is good. That’s 25 percent, which is really good.”
The travel is also a concern for the team, which left Wednesday for Baie-Comeau. After the game on Thursday, the Maineiacs will travel by ferry and by bus to Rimouski before heading home late Friday night.
“There will be back-to-back games all season,” said Durocher,” but where there is the ferry ride this week and three games in four, we’ll have to see how the players respond to that.”
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