LEWISTON – While the Lewiston Maineiacs’ staff has stressed all season that the team could play with Acadie-Bathurst, the win column lacked the evidence.
Sure, they had skated hard against the Titan, and held every game close. But close doesn’t earn points toward a playoff berth.
That all changed Sunday on the road.
“Bathurst is an older, more experienced team than we are,” said Maineiacs assistant coach Ed Harding. “They don’t have any young kids. They’ve got more 19-year-olds with experience. There is doubt in Bathurst’s mind, though. They know that the Lewiston Maineiacs can play with Bathurst any night, and we’ve proved that to them.
“We have respect for Bathurst. They have some very good hockey players over there, but when we play our game plan, and we know how to beat Bathurst with a certain game plan, then we can be pretty dangerous.”
Lewiston hosts Acadie-Bathurst for back-to-back games Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Colisee.
And the Maineiacs have something now that they were missing for a stretch of winless games in late October and into November: Confidence.
“It’s a long season, and you have 16- and 17-year-old kids out there, and we were looking for contributions from everybody,” said Harding.
That’s finally what the team seems to be getting.
“Jakub Bundil is playing a lot better, but what he’s done in the last four games, he’s playing tougher on the puck, stronger on his stick,” said Harding. “Now he’s creating some more chances for himself. Pier-Luc Champagne, same thing. I’ve been all over Eric Castonguay about that and he still needs to play stronger on his stick, and he understands that, and I’m on him every day about that.”
Those three players, along with Maxime Mathieu and Marc-Andre Daneau, have slowly started to contribute on offense.
“I told Mr. Just a long time ago, he asked us where we were going to get our scoring from,” said Harding. “I told him from everybody, and I still believe in that.”
The Maineiacs were shorthanded at a few practices this week, but expect to have a nearly-full lineup tonight and Saturday.
“It’s just the nature of hockey,” said Harding. “I’m not sure of any team in our league or anywhere else that doesn’t have some kind of an injury. We have a couple of guys that are practicing that are a little banged up, but this is the way it goes. You play through it, and hopefully you have a little bit of depth.”
The injury bug has bit Bathurst in recent weeks, too, forcing former Maineiacs coach Mario Durocher to juggle his lines. Still, according to Harding, the challenge will be tough.
“We would rather play Bathurst,” said Harding. “We have a nice rivalry with them now, it’s great competition, and our players get better by playing a team like that.”
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