ROUYN-NORANDA, Quebec – “Our backs are to the wall, now.”

While seemingly obvious, Maineiacs coach Mario Durocher had a bit of concern in his voice for the first time in weeks.

“I am a bit worried,” he admitted. “It scares me a bit that we have not won a really big game all season. It will be interesting to see how the guys react (Friday).”

Not only will the Maineiacs be looking to rebound from a heartbreaking overtime loss at home, but they are going to have to win two games on the road in addition to one at home to have a chance to advance in the playoffs.

That said, stategy will play a big part in Lewiston’s chances, and for the first time in the series, Durocher will tweek the team’s approach.

“We have had more shots on goal this series,” Durocher said, “but we have also allowed more shots than normal. We had not allowed so many shots on goal at home all season, and we had more than 30 against us in two straight games.”

To fix the problem, Durocher is switching his forecheck around, and sending the focus back to his blue line.

“From the beginning of the series, we have had a 2-1-2 forecheck, to put pressure on their defense,” Durocher said. “We will proabably wait a bit more for them this time, look for turnovers and try to capitalize on them. We still have better forwards than their defense. We are faster, and can still use that speed, but we will focus on fewer shots against us. They just follow what we do, so we hope that we can out-defend them.”

Also, Durocher was quick to point out that in each game during which the Huskies scored first, the Huskies won. In game two, Lewiston took an early lead and went on to win.

“Game one and game four are similar,” Durocher said, “and games two and three were alike, but backwards from each other. We want the game to be more like game four and one, and we expect it will be much more even.”