LEWISTON – If nothing else, the Lewiston Maineiacs are going to be fast.

For the second consecutive night, the Maineiacs trotted a team of rookies out onto the ice to face a team half-full of Victoriaville Tigres veterans.

Again, the Maineiacs hung with the Tigres for most of the night, but the final result was another two-goal loss.

Nick Huard had a goal and a pair of assists and Alexandre Labonte had a goal and an assist to lead Victoriaville to a 6-4 exhibition win over Lewiston in front of 591 at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee.

“We had a goal, an objective, and that was to get the best skilled, skating, total-package hockey players,” Maineiacs’ assistant coach Jeff Guay said. “This year, from top to bottom, I feel like the scouts gave us a lot of players. We have some tough decisions to make.”

Maineiacs’ first-round pick Garrett Clarke showed off his skills from the blue line in the first period, registering his first preseason goal with a blast on the power play that made it clean through everyone in front of the net, including Victoriaville netminder Loic Boivin.

Clarke had another chance later in the period to do the same thing, but ripped his shot wide.

Steeven Jacques solidified his position in the staff’s eyes with a power-play goal of his own at 11:39, nearly fanning on a feed from Sean Stagles before sliding it past Boivin for a 2-0 lead.

“We had a lot of good things tonight,” Guay said, “but we also have a lot of bad habits, a lot of backhands into open ice. These are things that will develop with coaching and video work, and it takes time. Remember, it’s only been four days.”

The Maineiacs’ defense fell asleep on the subsequent sequence as Victoriaville’s Jonathan Bonneau struck for a goal at the 12-minute mark, and the Tigres took advantage of their fourth power play of the period to even things up at 17:19.

A pair of Victoriaville goals surrounding the first fight at home this preseason highlighted the early part of the second period.

Filip Janosik pulled the Maineiacs back within one at 12:39 of the middle frame with a rebound goal on a Jacques shot.

In the third, Labonte put his team back out front by two by scoring on a rebound at the tail end of a power play.

All four goalies vying for the backup role behind starter Peter Delmas have now seen a half game, with Kirk Rafuse and Jonathan Connely getting a period-and-a-half each Monday.

“The goaltending situation has been one of the biggest things in our meetings going on right now,” Guay said. “There’s a lot of factors at play right now.”

Thanks for coming

After a few players left camp over the weekend, the Maineiacs were left with a more difficult decision after a pair of exhibition games Sunday and Monday.

Coach and GM Ed Harding announced his first round of cuts following Monday’s exhibition game against Victoriaville, sending 14 players home.

“With such a talented group of players this year, these are all difficult decisions,” Harding said.

Approximately 30 players remain with the team for the rest of the week, and Harding said he’ll make another cut, likely next weekend.

Among the skaters cut Monday night were 20-year-old Raphael Joly, Justin Parsons, Patrick Lanteigne, Josh Fattore, Logan Phillips, Jared Wilson, Jonathan Tower, Michael Hynes, Robby Theriault, Pier-Luc Pelletier, Tommy Dery and Marc-Andre L’Heurault.

Also cut were goalies Marc-Antoine Coulombe and Kirk Rafuse, who started five games for Lewiston last season.

Those goalie cuts leave just three in camp: Jonathan Connely and invite Phillip Wright.