Lewiston faces Victoriaville today at 4 p.m.
LEWISTON – The snow may be covering the cars, roads and driveways of most of the people reading this newspaper on Sunday, and it may have covered the Central Maine Civic Center and its parking lot overnight, but the last word from the staff at the arena and from the team is that the 4 p.m. game against Victoriaville will go on as scheduled.
Meanwhile, it was business as usual for the players on Saturday, who had dry-land training in anticipation of the Tigres.
“Victoriaville is an older team,” said Maineiacs coach Mario Durocher. “They have experience at forward and they have a few guys that can hurt you if you let them go.”
Durocher should know. He coached the Tigres for two seasons prior to taking over in Sherbrooke last year, and several of the older players either played for him or were drafted by his staff.
“I know a few of them really well,” said Durocher. “The overage players and the other ones I drafted are still there. Last year, when I was coaching against them, they seemed to get cranked to play against me.”
Victoriaville may be last in its division at 10-18-0-1, but the Tigres have two games in hand on the Maineiacs in the overall standings, and just two fewer losses.
“It’s an important game because they are behind us right now, and we want to keep them that way,” said Durocher. “Anytime we can get two points in this situation, we need them.”
If there is a weakness in Victoriaville, it’s at the blue line. Defensemen have allowed 943 shots to reach their goaltender in 29 games, an average of 32.5 per game, and the goaltending duo of Josh Tordjman and Daniel Manzato have allowed 116 goals, for an average of 3.99 per game.
“If we can work hard and put a lot of pressure on their defense, we should have a good chance,” said Durocher. “That’s where we need to attack them.”
The Maineiacs, meanwhile, have allowed just 765 shots against Brandon Verge, Matt Davis and Maxime Joyal. The three netminders, however, have allowed 103 goals, for just an .865 save percentage, the lowest in the league. According to Durocher, Verge will get the start on Sunday after working one-on-one with goaltending coach Stéphane Waite on Saturday morning. Verge last played on Thursday, and was pulled after allowing four goals on 13 shots in just over a period of work against Val d’Or.
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