Lewiston faces its former rival Friday when Prince Edward Island visits the CMCC.
LEWISTON – In each of three games this season against P.E.I., the Lewiston Maineiacs have narrowed the gap.
The first time the two met in October, the Rocket darted out to a 2-0 lead less than five minutes into the game and played stifling defense, winning at home 4-1.
In November, Lewiston kept it a tight-checking, 1-0 game until the third period.
Then in December, Lewiston carried a 2-0 lead into the latter stages of the second period, only to fold over the final 23 minutes for a 4-2 loss in Charlottetown.
“We’ve had three pretty good games against them,” said Maineiacs coach Ed Harding. “They are a talented team, they are four lines deep, and it’s going to come down to which team is the smarter team.”
Friday game against the Rocket, the last meeting of the season between two former rivals (when they were Sherbrooke and Montreal), will be a good test for the Maineiacs, who lost leads of 2-1 and 3-1 Wednesday in a 4-3 loss to Quebec on the road. After that game, Harding cited “unintelligent play” as a contributing factor.
“The biggest part of P.E.I.’s game is the systems,” Harding said after the team’s practice Thursday. “As a coach, you enjoy matchups like we have on Friday night. It’s a challenge.”
On paper, it would seem that P.E.I. has the edge. The Rocket are 22-12-3-4 through 41 games, ranked sixth in goals and, more importantly, fifth in goals against. They have allowed 1,067 shots on goal through 41 games, an average of 26 per game, second best in the league. Lewiston leads the league with an average of 25.1 shots allowed.
“We play a very similar type of game,” said Harding. “Very defensive.”
As to which goaltender will start Friday, Harding declined to say. He did, however, say that both Matt Davis and Brandon Verge would start one game over the weekend, so whichever netminder he uses Friday will sit on Sunday against Drummondville. Davis has not started a game since a November 17 loss to Moncton, and has seen action only once, in mop-up duty last Saturday night when he faced four Baie-Comeau shots in the final 10 minutes of a 5-0 Lewiston win.
As for P.E.I, rookie netminder Ryan Mior is at the Under-17 championships, so the reins appear to be in the hands of Sebastien Nolet. On offense, Cory Urquhart and Michael Lambert have combined for 99 points.
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