For a while, it looked like one of the bigger weaknesses facing the Lewiston Maineiacs was their penalty-kill. The team was on the lower side of the middle of the league on the PK, and the magic that helped Stefano Giliati score 11 short-handed goals last season appeared to be gone.

Talk about an about face.

In five games through Friday night, Lewiston had allowed just three power-play goals on 41 opposing power plays, a stellar 92.5 percent kill rate.

Avoiding 10

In five of the team’s games this year, Lewiston and its opponent have combined for exactly 10 goals. The overriding theme in those games, however, has been a Maineiacs’ loss. Four times out of five, the Maineiacs have suffered a defeat, twice by a count of 8-2 (Bathurst and St. John’s), and twice by a count of 6-4 (Halifax and Saint John).

Attendance talk

The QMJHL’s attendance report shows a league-wide increase of 0.7 percent, but the numbers aren’t so kind to Lewiston. The Maineiacs have drawn 48,058 fans to their 20 home games this season. That’s 3,290 fewer than last year through 20 games.

The Maineiacs are averaging 2,403 fans per game, down 164 per game from this time last season.

Not surprisingly, the Quebec Remparts lead the league in total attendance, and the crowd at the Maineiacs’ game in Quebec on Friday was the eighth-largest in the league this season and just more than 10,700.