LEWISTON — Considering the options, perhaps Shawinigan is a team the Lewiston Maineiacs won’t mind facing Wednesday.

After a gangbusters start to the season facing competition that is largely in the lower half of the league’s standings, the Maineiacs’ recent stretch has included several games against team among the league’s top five. Three of the team’s last four games have been against the teams in first, second or third. Two of those opponents are divisional foes.

“Just in our divisional games, you have a 66 percent chance of facing a team that’s in the top three in the whole league in Drummondville and Victoriaville,” Maineiacs’ coach Don MacAdam said. “and Shawinigan is no slouch, either. It’s not something to cry about, it’s something we have to rise to occasion and deal with.”

Lewiston hasn’t won a game in its last six, and is mired in a 2-7-1 slump since starting the season with seven wins in 10 games. Part of the issue for the Maineiacs has been goal scoring. In the team’s last 11 games, the Maineiacs have scored just 27 times, an average of 2.45 per game.

The other end has been a shooting gallery. Starter Adrien Lemay has been battered recently. Opponents have averaged 38.8 shots per game against Lewiston in those 11 games.

“Overall, as a group I think we need to give more,” MacAdam said. “We’ve been working, we’ve been working, but we just have to understand that the level we’ve been working at hasn’t been high enough to get accomplished what we want to get accomplished. We have to notch it up. We’ve been playing at seven, seven-and-a-half, and we have to bring that up.”

Offensively, MacAdam said, the team is working well to get enough pucks to the net. There’s just no finish.

“We’ve had a number of opportunities to score goals that we just haven’t taken advantage of,” MacAdam said. “It’s a matter of bearing down and burying the chances we need. We’ve had a number of breakaways, even in the last game against Saint John, we had some great opportunities and we just couldn’t finish. We need our shooters to finish.”

The Maineiacs will travel to Shawinigan on Wednesday and return after the game to prepare for a double set against PEI at the Colisee on Friday and Saturday.

Missing in action

Already missing Billy Lacasse due to a leg injury, the Maineiacs will also be without top-six forward Alex Beaton on Wednesday after he was hit in the head by a puck in Sunday’s loss to Saint John.

Pier-Olivier Morin tried to clear the puck from the blue line and hit Beaton in the side of the head. The play turned into a goal for the Sea Dogs.

Kennedy, Woodworth honored

Lewiston netminder Jordan Kennedy and fellow draft pick Stephen Woodworth, who has dressed for one game this season as a call-up, have been selected to play for Team Atlantic in the Under-17 championships.

Earlier this month, Sam Henley and Francis Beauvillier earned a similar honor with Team Quebec for the same tournament, which is held in late December.