LEWISTON – It seems ironic that the last team the Lewiston Maineiacs defeated at the Colisee prior to Sunday will be the team skating through the doors tonight, two nights following an emotional overtime win over Moncton.

It’s also the fourth in a series of five straight games against teams ranked either first or second in their respective division for Lewiston, and comes just as the league’s most highly-touted player, Sidney Crosby, is returning from an injury.

“We realize that Crosby is a great player, but he isn’t the whole team,” said Maineiacs’ assistant coach Jeff Guay. “It takes more than one guy to play this game, and we have to be aware of all of their good players.”

And Rimouski is loaded – on the front line, at least.

Dany Roussin, who has played most of the past two seasons with Crosby, is second to Crosby in the overall league point standings. Marc-Antoine Pouliot gives Rimouski three of the top five point-scorers in the QMJHL, and Zbynek Hrdel is also in the top 10.

“We have to make sure we don’t feed their transition game,” said Guay. “We have to be patient and hang on in their end and not send blind passes to the front or to the point that one of those big guns will pick up and skate the other way.”

That might not be as tough as it sounds for the Maineiacs. While Rimouski has the top offense in the league with 140 goals in 32 games, the Oceanic also have given up more goals than anyone else, 128.

“That’s the one thing about them that you can call a weak point,” said Guay. “Their defense is a little suspect but we have to put the pressure on and keep it on, force the issue in deep and play a third forward high just in case.”

After playing conservatively in his past two games, Chad Denny is again getting the green light to play on Tuesday, bringing Lewiston’s defensive ranks back up to six. Jonathan Paiement is coming off of one of his better performances in November, which should help in the defensive zone as well.

On offense, Mathieu Aubin, Nick Cowan and Marc-Andre Cliche will remain sidelined with their respective injuries, while an Alexandre Picard return to the lineup has not been ruled out.

The coaching staff is hoping that any momentum gained when Eric Castonguay fired his wrist shot past Corey Crawford on Sunday night will carry over.

“Some of that has to carry over,” said Guay. “We did well staying out of the box (against Moncton), and we have to do the same against Rimouski. They have a great power play with Crosby and everyone else, so we can’t give them opportunities to take advantage of that.”