LEWISTON – Olivier Legault is called many things in the Maineiacs’ locker room, but prognosticator is not usually one of the words other players throw around.

A fourth-liner for Lewiston all season when he’s been healthy, Legault is still adjusting to life in the QMJHL. He has size, but lacks quick feet that would make him better than a fourth-line player. Most of the time, his role is as an enforcer, stepping in to fight when he is needed.

At practice Saturday though, Legault turned into a soothsayer…sort of.

“I am playing with Alex (Bourret) tomorrow on the fourth line,” said Legault in his heavy accent.

“I am sure to score my first goal because of that.”

On Sunday, Bourret played just 14 minutes of the game before being ejected for slashing, and Legault hadn’t scored a goal.

In the second period, though, Jonathan Paiement rifled a wrist shot for a goal.

The pass came from Marc-André Cliche, but the second assist had come from Legault. It was his first point in the QMJHL, and although it wasn’t a goal, it put a smile on his face despite the loss.

League dominance

Some things just never change.

For eight weeks, the Gatineau Olympiques have been the top-ranked team in the Canadian Hockey League, and they showed a small crowd at the Central Maine Civic Center why on Sunday night, fighting off a determined Lewiston Maineiacs team without two of its best players, and despite getting just three shots on goal in the third period.

Things do change, and that would be the company Gatineau is getting near the top of the rankings from several other QMJHL teams.

P.E.I. has leapt over Cape Breton to occupy the second spot in the rankings, followed by Cape Breton, which has also been at or near the top all season, in third.

In fifth, East Division-leading Rimouski puts four ‘Q’ teams in the top five, despite losing three times this season to the Maineiacs.

Division wrangling

There are five teams in the Maineiacs’ division, and four of them are within three points of each other for second through fifth position. Division-leading Rimouski has also struggled in the last few weeks and has a 13-point lead on current No. 2 Baie-Comeau.

Of the four teams, Lewiston currently sits in the best position, having played just 29 games, the same number at Chicoutimi. Baie-Comeau, at 27 points, has played 32 games, Chicoutimi and Quebec have 25 points each, but Chicoutimi holds the edge over Quebec with one game in hand.

Lewiston, meanwhile, has more wins than either Quebec or Chicoutimi with 11, and has played three fewer games than Baie-Comeau.

Players of the week

Francis Lemieux of the Chicoutimi Sagueneens is the offensive player of the week in the QMJHL, while Mathieu Dumas of the Val d’Or Foreurs is the defensive player of the week. Lemieux beat out Rimouski’s Sidney Crosby, despite the fact that Crosby put up two goals and four assists on Friday night, and added another goal on Sunday.

Lemieux finished the weekend with two goals and four assists in three games, and was a plus-1.

Dumas is currently seventh in the league in defensive scoring with 21 points in 27 games, and this weekend had two goals and six assists, which contributed to more than half of his team’s goals (11) on the weekend. Dumas and the Foreurs will be in town to play the Maineiacs Thursday night.

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