LEWISTON – Two more road games, two more chances for the Lewiston Maineiacs to inch closer to the 10-win plateau for the season.

The Maineiacs’ bus rumbled out of the parking lot at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee on Friday morning, bound for Moncton, New Brunswick.

There, the team will set up its short-term base camp for a pair of weekend games, one Saturday night in Bathurst against the Titan, and another Sunday afternoon in Charlottetown, PEI against the Rocket.

“We’ve got to play two games in less than 24 hours, but you can’t feel sorry for us, because PEI has to do the same thing, while Bathurst (had) to play (Friday) night, too,” Maineiacs’ coach Ed Harding said. “It’s two games, and it’s two games we have to come out and play the same way we have been.”

While the team’s recent play has seen it drop from about .500 to 6-11 at the quarter-mark of the season, Lewiston’s coaching staff isn’t being overly-critical of the team’s on-ice execution.

“The chances against have not been many, the shots against have been few, which really looks good,” Harding said. “The guys are playing the system for the most part. There are some simple things we have to do this weekend.”

After formal practice Thursday, Harding sat back and watched the team have a bit of fun. Some of the players played around with pucks and stickhandling, others worked on one-timers, and still others “fought” among themselves. Watching the fake fights, Harding smiled, shook his head, laughed a bit and skated off.

They’d earned the break, he said.

All week, the Maineiacs drilled hard on topics ranging from their aweful penalty kill unit, to 4-on-4, to the power play. The former has been of particular concern this season. Lewiston has allowed at least one goal on the PK in every game this season.

“We talked about it, as a coaching staff, we’ve taken a hard look at it,” Harding said. “The system was proven and successful last year, when we had the best penalty-killing percentage this team’s ever had. We lost a lot of guys who were really good at anticipating, who were really good on the PK.”

The power-play exercises looked solid in practice Thursday, too, with rapid puck movement and plenty of shots on net.

“We’re changing things up a bit,” Harding said. “There will be some new personnel on the PP, too.”

Lewiston goes into the weekend with 12 points through 17 games, which places the Maineiacs fourth in the Telus Central Division, eight points back of Victoriaville in third, and tied with Halifax for 16th of 18 teams in the league.

Bathurst, Lewiston’s Saturday opponent, is 7-8-4 through 19 games, while PEI is 7-9-2 through 18 contests.