Maineiacs’ fans united over the weekend – in Jackman?

Friday morning, a fan bus and a van left the Central Maine Civic Center en route to Quebec for the Maineiacs’ game against the Remparts, Quebec’s famous Winter Carnival, and for Sunday’s game against Shawinigan. When the bus, the van, and another car following behind reached Jackman, the last town in Maine before the border, fans poured out of the bus and formed a line at the one restroom in the tiny Gulf gas station store.

They made it to the game on time, and were very loud despite the loss that evening.

After a day at Winter Carnival, the fans packed up and headed to Shawinigan, witnessing the Maineiacs’ best comeback of the year to date in a 5-5 tie.

The bus returned home following the 4 p.m. game, driving right through the Super Bowl.

League notes

n With a shutout Saturday against the Drummondville Voltigeurs, goaltender Martin Houle has become the new Cape Breton Screaming Eagles’ record holder with three shutouts in a season. The record belonged to Marc-Andre Fleury and Danny Lavoie. Houle, who has a goals against average of 2.26 after 44 games, is chasing the QMJHL record average of 2.09 that belongs to Patrick Couture (Quebec Ramparts, 1997-1998).

n The Shawinigan Cataractes, the only original QMJHL team left from its formation in 1969, will celebrate their 35th anniversary.

n The TV show “Junior et Majeur” was broadcasted Sunday afternoon on RDS, a Canadian sports network. It will rerun Tuesday, Feb. 3 at 11:30 a.m., Thursday, Feb. 5 at 1:30 p.m. and Friday, Feb. 6 at 5:30 a.m. The latest edition features the Lewiston Maineiacs.

n Yannick Tifu of Rouyn-Noranda scored three goals and collected four assists in three games last week to merit the offensive player of the week award.

On defense, Maxime Daigneault registered two win and a loss, maintained a goals-against average of 1.96 and a save percentage of .941 on more than 100 shots to garner the award.

[email protected]