This wasn’t the kind of record the Lewiston Maineiacs had visions of equaling to begin the season.

Another night of failed defensive-zone coverage and another three periods without converting on Grade-A scoring opportunities allowed the Shawinigan Cataractes to skate all over Lewiston on Wednesday in a 9-4 victory at the Centre Bionest, putting the Maineiacs on the precipice of setting one of the more inauspicious records in team history. One more loss would give the Maineiacs their longest losing streak since relocating to Lewiston in 2003.

“We haven;t had everyone at the top of their game enough to make a difference, and it shows,” Lewiston coach Don MacAdam said. “We were getting excellent goaltending in the beginning, and I’m not saying we’re getting poor goaltending now, but it’s not been the same, for sure, and our overall effort in the defensive zone has been less than we need it to be. Overall, we just haven’e been our own best friend.”

The Maineiacs lost seven consecutive games twice before this season, once in October and November of 2005, and again last season spanning late December and early January. Lewiston hasn’t won since a 5-4 win on the road over Montreal on Nov. 4. The team has allowed opponents an average of 42.6 shots and 5.3 goals per game during the skid, while scoring just 2.6 per game of their own.

Ironically enough, the Maineiacs’ power play, which had been all but dormant in recent weeks, came to life Tuesday, scoring three of the team’s four goals in the loss.

Shawinigan took the lead early, jumping out to a 2-0 lead on goals by Jean-Laurence Beauchmin and Michael Claffey in the first eight minutes.

Michael Chaput hit the double-digit plateau in goals to draw his squad within one with a power play marker at 16:24 of the first, but Claffey added another to the Cats’ total less than two minutes later to again put his squad on top by a pair.

“We were ‘not bad’ in the first period,” MacAdam said, “and then we took a bunch of stupid penalties in the second and got well behind. We left the point and the front of the net wide open all game.”

The shooting gallery — and the Shawinigan goals — continued in the second. After Sebastien Trudeau scored an early one to again draw the Maineiacs to within a goal, Philippe Paradis again gave his team a two-goal cushion with his eighth goal of the season at 9:23.

Charles-Olivier Roussel capitalized on an Eric Gelinas penalty to net his fifth of the year at 18:02, and Raphael Pouliot made it 6-2 a minute later with his second of the season on a goal that was reviewed when it appeared Pouliot had kicked the puck in.

The Cats fired a game’s worth of shots at Lemay through the first two periods, getting 39 pucks on the 20-year-old keeper through 40 minutes while the Maineiacs managed only 16.

The Maineiacs netted the first goal of the final frame, as well, with Mathieu Gingras netting his second of the season. Claffey polished off the hat trick a minute later, though, and the teams traded goals the rest of the way, including Etienne Brodeur’s sixth of the season.

Lewiston returns to the ice Friday at home for the first of a back-to-back set with the PEI Rocket at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee. Both Friday and Saturday’s games are slated for a 7 p.m. start.