LEWISTON – Halloween is coming early to the Androscoggin Bank Colisee, and the Lewiston Maineiacs are hoping for a healthy dose of ‘treats’ to balance any ‘tricks’ their opponent may throw in their direction.

The Maineiacs, 5-3 on the young season and one of the favorites to finish atop the league standings, will host the Chicoutimi Sagueneens and the Quebec Remparts this weekend.

Lewiston squares off against Chicoutimi at the Colisee tonight at 7.

“They just got a couple of players back in Nicolas Blanchard and (David) Desharnais,” Maineiacs’ coach Clem Jodoin said of the Sagueneens. “They played a good defensive game against us, and they play that way in general, so they are a tough team.”

The Sags will be without Francis Verreault-Paul, Jean-Sebastien Cote and Juraj Mikus this weekend for a variety of reasons, which limits Chicoutimi coach Richard Martel’s depth, especially on the front line.

“All of the players are good players,” Martel said. “We have not yet finalized how we will run the lines, but it will be tough to do.”

Verreault-Paul and Cote are injured, and Mikus, who is from Slovakia, has yet to clear up visa problems and will stay in Canada.

Chicoutimi, in full rebuilding mode after two seasons near the top of the league, has won just three of its first 12 games, though it has salvaged points in two overtime losses and in a shootout loss. The Maineiacs tripped the Sags up 2-0 in Chicoutimi on Sept. 30.

“They were at the end of a long road trip then, and they still won that game,” said Martel. “We know that they are one of the better teams in the league. We’re going to have to find some way to stay with them for the first two periods and make it interesting in the third.”

One of the pieces of the Maineiacs’ puzzle still waiting to be assembled is the power play. Lewiston is 9 of 58 on the power play, and has scored three power-play goals in its last 40 attempts.

“We are working on that every morning, every morning at practice until it starts to perform,” said Jodoin. “We are No. 14 in offense in the league right now, which isn’t good at all.”

On the bright side, Jodoin quickly noted, was the team’s goals-against average of 3.25 goals per game, one of the top three in the league.

“Defensively, we’ve been doing well, but we can still get better,” said Jodoin. “We are not a mature team, yet.”

Sunday’s opponent will be another early-season rematch, this time with Patrick Roy’s Quebec Remparts. The Maineiacs snuck out of the Colisee Pepsi on Sept. 26 with a 3-2 victory over the Remparts, who have been slow to recover from an early slide.

Still, Brent Aubin collected four goals and added two assists in a 6-2 triumph over Chicoutimi on Wednesday. The Quebec offense has awakened with 24 goals in three games in October.