LEWISTON – No player ever wants to take a penalty.

Just ask Sebastien Piche.

Late in the second period, with the game knotted at three, Sebastien Piche watched as a Shawinigan skater wrestled himself loose from a scrum at the left of goaltender Jonathan Bernier’s crease.

The puck came from the right corner off of another Shawinigan player and was headed toward the open left winger. As the puck reached the blue paint, Piche reached out and snagged his opponent’s jersey with his stick and spun him around.

There hasn’t been many better candidates for a picture in the dictionary next to “hooking,” and officials blew the play dead, sending Piche to the box.

“I never want to take penalties, good or bad,” Piche said with a laugh. “After that, people were like, ‘Good penalty, good penalty,’ so I guess it was good.”

Who does your hair?

Several Maineiacs are sporting new hairdos this weekend, but unlike the Cataractes (all blonde) or several other teams, none of the Maineiacs match.

Chris Tutalo is sporting a mohawk with no added color, and also shaved his number, 22, into the left side of the shorter hair.

Triston Manson decided to go with an off-center mohawk, starting at his left temple and ending behind his right ear, and he dyed the remaining hair orange. Michal Korenko used another team color on his mohawk, dying what remains of his hair bright blue.

Last week, David Taylor decided to sport a traditional mohawk, earning barbs from his teammates at an impromptu team awards ceremony in Prince Edward Island.

Fare thee well

In another pre-game ceremony Saturday night, the Maineiacs honored their three 20-year-old players.

Prior to faceoff, three easels were set up on the ice, along the carpet leading from the home bench. On each, a framed commemorative picture stood covered by the respective players’ jerseys.

As Triston Manson, Pierre-Luc Faubert and Simon Courcelles were introduced, the players skated to center ice and posed for a picture before skating away to the bench.

You’re in, you’re out

A few tweaks to the lineups greeted those watching the game Saturday night.

Gone from the Maineiacs’ lineup were David Taylor and Michael Ward, as the coaching staff chose to instead play Tom Michalik on defense in place of Ward, and welcomed Marc-Andre Daneau back to the lineup in place of Taylor. Daneau had been out with a knee injury for three weeks.

On the Shawinigan side, Anton Manson sat out as captain Kevin Cormier returned to the lineup after being suspended for a game after receiving a match penalty in his final regular-season game.