LEWISTON – Giving thanks is an annual tradition this time of year.

The Lewiston Maineiacs are hoping they have something to be thankful for come Saturday morning.

Lewiston, mired in one of the worst slumps in franchise history, will host a pair of games at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee this weekend, hosting the Shawinigan Cataractes Wednesday night and bookending the Thanksgiving holiday with a contest against Acadie-Bathurst on Friday.

“Thanksgiving is always a great week for this organization,” Maineiacs’ coach Ed Harding said. “There’s a lot of friends and family around, there’ll be a lot of people at the games, and it’ll be a good chance for us to show what we can do.”

What the team has done in recent weeks is allow a lot of goals, something not lost on the team’s coaching staff, which has worked long hours trying to remedy the situation.

In the team’s recent string of five losses in six games, Lewiston goaltending has allowed 43 goals, 41 of which came in the five losses.

The worrisome statistic there, though, isn’t necessarily the number of goals, but the number of shots it took opposing teams to reach that total. In the five losses, the Maineiacs have allowed 36.8 shots per game, and allowed 41 goals, an average of one goal every 4.5 shots, and a save percentage of just .777.

“It’s a huge concern,” Harding said. “It’s not good. The goalies know it, and we’re working on it every day. Peter Delmas, for example, looked like the old Peter Delmas early in the game against Gatineau (last Saturday).”

Harding is convinced that, it the team continues to play hard like he says it has, and if Delmas and the rest of the goaltenders come around, the team isn’t far off from stringing some wins together.

“There are some other areas we can improve in, but we know where our problem is right now, and I think Peter is starting to come around, and if we get him going, we give up 26 shots a night, I think we’ll start to see things turn around.”

Shawinigan, meanwhile, comes into the Androscoggin Bank Colisee on Wednesday on a 15-game winning streak and sits atop the league’s standings with 44 points in 26 games. The Cataractes have scored a whopping 123 goals already this season, 52 of which have come on the power play.

“They’ve got a good power play and they have some good skill guys,” Harding said. “We’ll have our hands full (Wednesday) night. We have some certain things we need to do to be able to beat them.”

The Titan are 11-13-4-2 and sit 10th overall in the league. Lewiston played in Bathurst the only other time the teams met this season, with the Maineiacs skating off with a 5-3 victory.

“We’ve always had a good rivalry with them, but I think that will diminish as this season goes along, because we don’t play them as much,” Harding said. “When we played them up there, they had quite a few injuries, and they played us hard. It’s not going to be easy on Friday, either.”

Faceoff for both games this week is at 7 p.m.