LEWISTON – Having been a part of four teams in last five seasons (and even more before that), Mario Durocher certainly knows the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

Having once patrolled the bench on the home side of the rink at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee, he knows this town, and this team, too.

Durocher, an assistant coach with the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles, has returned to the Colisee with Acadie-Bathurst and with Cape Breton several times.

But Tuesday night, Durocher will make his first playoff appearance at the Colisee since Game 6 of the first round against Rouyn-Noranda in 2004.

His memories of Lewiston, after four years away, haven’t soured.

“It was a big experience the first year here,” Durocher said. “You have to deal with a new team, a new atmosphere. It was new for the players coming to the States, there were a lot of things to do. I learned a lot from that experience, and I’m sure the players learned a lot about that, too.”

After Lewiston let him go, Durocher found his way to Gatineau and Bathurst before landing with the Eagles in Cape Breton.

“It’s more like two co-coaches on the ice and on the bench,” Cape Breton head coach and GM Pascal Vincent said.

Durocher still has the itch to be the top man on the bench, though.

“I’m happy here, I really enjoy working with the coaching staff and with the players,” Durocher said. “But I’m still looking for head coach job. Every year here is a one-year contract, and I talk with Pascal after the year and see where we are.”

“If I have to move from Cape Breton, it’s going to be closer to home,” Durocher continued.

When reminded that Cape Breton might be as far as you can get from home within the league, Durocher smiled.

“I guess anything would be closer to home, then,” he laughed. “But I would want to be in Quebec, closer to my place (near Sherbrooke).”

One of the Eagles’ biggest weapons, their power play, is one of Durocher’s specialties.

“I work with the defensemen, and I work with the power play,” Durocher said. “I think, from being a head coach, you know all aspects of the game. If they ask me to work with the PK, I’ll work with the PK.”

Four years can change plenty in the game of hockey, but Durocher does remember a few things from his days in Lewiston – the current coaches being two of them.

“I know their personality, for sure,” Durocher said. “I think that can help in certain aspects of the game.”

He hopes it will, anyway. Games 3, 4 and (if necessary) 5 of the series are this week at the Colisee, starting Tuesday at 7 p.m.