LEWISTON – Twelve games in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League is roughly equivalent to 18 percent of the season.

That’s how long Garrett Clarke has had to serve a suspension for cross-checking an opponent in the face. Friday, he gets to play again.

According to Lewiston Maineiacs’ coach Don MacAdam, Clarke, a 16-year-old defenseman, is “100 percent ready to go.” “He has worked hard, every single day, as ridiculous as the length (of the suspension) was,” MacAdam said.

“He’s stronger, he’s quicker, and he’s happier, believe it or not, and he’s more focused.”

The Maineiacs are going to need him.

The team plays its final four games of the season at home, beginning Friday night with a battle against the PEI Rocket at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee, a team near to MacAdam’s heart.

“I’m looking forward to this team coming in, being from PEI,” MacAdam said. “That team is actually one of the great reasons why I had a great deal of interest in the Q. The move by the league to Atlantic Canada gives a lot of these kids opportunities I didn’t have at that age.” The Rocket, meanwhile, are trying to hold off the Acadie-Bathurst Titan for fourth place in the Atlantic Division. The Rocket are four points up, with four games to play.

“Every team is fighting its own battles right now,” MacAdam said.

The Maineiacs’ battle, meanwhile, is to make the playoffs. The team begins the weekend tied with Val d’Or for the final playoff position in the QMJHL, and Lewiston holds the tiebreaker in the number of wins.

“Now, it’s got the spotlight,” MacAdam said of the playoff push. “In reality, we have to track, ‘OK., Baie-Comeau’s playing this team, and we’re playing those games and Val d’Or’s playing these other games.’ It’s come down to that time of year.”

The Rocket are 4-6-0-0 in their last 10 games, while Lewiston is 3-6-1-0. The Rocket, though, will bring with them reigning CHL player of the week Benjamin Casavant, who in three games last week had six goals, two assists and a plus-four rating.

Lewiston’s offense has struggled of late. The team is 3-8-1-0 in its last 12 games, and has scored more than two goals just once in that stretch, during a 4-2 home win nearly two weeks ago.

The Maineiacs then play Shawinigan in a matinee on Sunday, but that game is well off of the team’s radar at this point.

“The situation we’re in, it’s absolutely one game at a time,” MacAdam said.