LEWISTON – What starts Thursday for nearly 50 junior-aged hockey players may be over as quickly as Saturday night for some of them.

The Lewiston Maineiacs open their sixth training camp this week, more than a 10 days later than normal, and with just two weeks to prepare before the first game of the season.

“We’re going to have to hit the ground running,” Maineiacs’ Head Coach and GM Ed Harding said.

Harding and others around the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League pushed league officials to bring all 18 teams into the same pre-season schedule to help foster an even playing field.

“You had some teams starting on August 12, and others on the 20th, and in some preseason games you had veterans playing against all rookies,” Harding said.

The result is this: A whirlwind two-week evaluation camp with a heavy emphasis on game play.

“We have enough guys returning, we’ll be able to implement our systems quickly enough, and we’ll be in OK shape,” Harding said.

The prospective Maineiacs will meet each other and their billet families in an informal, private setting Thursday before facing a battery of on- and off-ice tests and drills Friday.

The public’s first chance to see the players in competition is Friday night, with a series of mini intrasquad games featuring all of the players in camp.

“Friday night, we’ll introduce all the players,” Harding said. “We’ll have a special announcement that pertains to the season that night, too, and we’ll play mini-games with three teams … and they’ll be playing 4-on-4.”

The players coming to camp this year are as diverse as ever. Fifteen of the 49 players on the team’s official training camp roster are players who wore a Maineiacs’ uniform last season. Twenty-one of them are Maineiacs’ draft picks who have not yet skated with the club, 12 are invited free agents and one, Brett Gallant, was acquired in a trade last week.

The defensive corps boasts the most experience, with the potential for five veterans with significant QMJHL experience to make the squad.

Up front, Alex Beaton, Danick Paquette, Matt Bourdeau, Marc Bourgeois, Todd Chinova, Billy Lacasse and Lucas Labelle are those players returning who offered a significant contribution last season.

But, if Harding’s pre-camp warnings bear any weight, each of those players still has plenty of work to do.

“I don’t want guys coming in here and taking those easy parking spaces,” Harding said. “You have some guys who think they have it made, and you have to create that atmosphere that, you know what, they have to be a little bit scared for their job. That helps them play better and perform better. We’ve got some very good, young hockey players coming in here who are going to be very hungry.”

Training camp continues Saturday with morning practices followed by a more traditional evening game. On Sunday, 20 players will travel to Victoriaville for the team’s first preseason game of the year, while the rest of the players will participate in an intrasquad game at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee, and on Monday, the team will host Victoriaville in a 4 p.m. matinee at the Colisee.