LEWISTON — He scored one of the most iconic goals in the early history of the Lewiston Maineiacs. In 123 regular-season games over two seasons, he scored 26 goals and added 21 assists, and he added 10 points in 15 playoff contests.

None of those points was bigger than the goal he scored — his only goal of the postseason — in Game 5 of first round in the 2004 President’s Cup playoffs, 6:02 into overtime on the road in Rouyn-Noranda.

And while many fans will remember him more for his team-record-holding 592 total penalty minutes, and for his signature post-fight lasso twirls, that goal remains one of the single proudest moments in the franchise’s eight-year history.

It was the goal that gave the Lewiston Maineiacs and their fans their first taste of hope — the heroes’ welcome the team received upon its arrival after a 12-plus-hour bus ride home bore that out, as did the gutsy 4-2 win at home two days later to force a Game 7 back in Rouyn-Noranda, a game that Lewiston, painfully out of gas, ultimately lost.

These days, Sheldon Wenzel remains an icon among the Maineiacs’ faithful fans. They hold his name in the highest esteem. You would expect nothing less from this blue-collar former mill town that has seen its own share of tough times from which it has fought back.

Back in Alberta, Canada, the feeling is mutual.

“I really enjoyed my time there, I met a lot of good people and I’ll always remember it,” Wenzel said.

Wenzel has since moved on from professional hockey, last playing with the Mississippi RiverKings in 2007-08 (where, to no one’s surprise, he was a fan favorite while racking up 193 penalty minutes in 63 regular-season games). But the two years he spent in Lewiston remain fresh in his memory.

“People will remember it how they want to remember it, for penalties, fighting, goals or whatever,” Wenzel said. “I’m just happy to have been a part of the organization, to be remembered at all.”

Past success

The mandate of any major junior hockey franchise, at its core, remains the same: to advance as many of its players to the professional or Canadian collegiate ranks while at the same time building the character of these young men who give their blood, sweat and tears for the organization.

Wenzel never made it beyond the Central Hockey League. But the team’s mission? He still considers it accomplished.

“I definitely got every opportunity in hockey that I ever had by being in Lewiston,” Wenzel said. “To this day, I know I wouldn’t have gotten where I did without the people there.”

Other players from those first few years of the Maineiacs’ existence did move on to bigger and better hockey leagues, too. Five former Lewiston skaters have played in the National Hockey League. Sixteen more have played in the American Hockey League, and 14 (and perhaps more, statistics are hard to find) have played at least one full season at a Canadian university. Another handful have dabbled in the ECHL, CHL or SPHL.

“I’m not sure there’s another team in the league in recent years that has helped move on quite as many players as this organization has,” current Lewiston General Manager Roger Shannon said.

That may be a touch of hyperbole, but perhaps not. The Maineiacs also had, at one point, a streak of consecutive first-round NHL draft picks that was the envy of the Canadian Hockey League.

Players like Jonathan Bernier and Marc-Andre Cliche (Los Angeles Kings), and David Perron and Jaroslav Halak (St. Louis Blues) have often said how much they loved being in Lewiston.

“This team drafted me, gave me the chance,” Bernier said during a return visit to Lewiston last year when his Manchester Monarchs (AHL) faced the Portland Pirates at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee. “I love the fans here, my billets, everybody was so nice. It’s great to come back here to see them.”

He sounds like a broken record.

Almost to a person, returning players speak well of the time they spent in Lewiston. The fans. The billets. The team. The family.

Rough stretch

The Lewiston Maineiacs strung together six consecutive seasons of .500-or-better hockey in their first six years of existence, and at one point, over a five-year period, were the third-best team in terms of winning percentage in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

That changed drastically in 2008. Coming off a 37-win season in 2007-08, one year after a 50-win campaign and a league title, Lewiston hit the bottom. In 2008-09, the team won just 22 games. Last year, 23 wins. In two years, the Maineiacs went from the toast of the league to the 16th-best team two years running.

In the front office, things fell apart. Revenue wasn’t where it needed to be. Fan support, with a less-than-adequate on-ice product, waned. The building wasn’t filling, and the bills weren’t all being paid on time.

“We have to find stability, that’s the main challenge,” Lewiston managing consultant and governor Bill Schurman said. “Over time, I think we can do that. Coming from a recent governors’ meeting, there is a genuine respect for this organization out there from a competitive perspective, and there’s certainly concern from an organizational perspective.”

The team went through a handful of office administration in various capacities, and on the ice, it went through a handful of coaches. The team even survived a botched attempt to move to Canada.

“Not unlike any other business that’s going through trying times, when you go through trying times, there are reasons for it,” Schurman said. “There are two ways to deal with it. You can shove all the problems in a box and put it in the corner, or you can open the box up and deal with things one at a time, and head on. We’re more the type to open the box up and try to fix things.”

Promising future

Lewiston became less known as a team with a propensity to advance its players, and better known as a team in disarray.

But, like many aspects of the QMJHL, the Maineiacs appear to be cyclical. Maineiacs’ majority owner Mark Just and minority owner Wendell Young brought in one of the league’s top executives, Schurman, as a management consultant and team governor. Immediately, the attitude in the front office changed.

The team adopted a slogan, “Proud Past, Bright Future.”

“It’s really about the proud past, not only of the team, but of the whole community,” Schurman said. “Our goal is to reconnect the team to the community, and this community is one with a proud past, with challenges.

“I feel that if we deal with the challenges, one by one, as the community has over its history, that we will hopefully have a very bright future,” Schurman added.

On the hockey operations side, Roger Shannon seized full control of the scouting staff, and began drafting and trading with a plan, with a purpose. The team’s viability, he said, will depend largely on the product on the ice, and he’s helped to build the team in such a way that those who follow the team may sense something a bit familiar.

“And a lot of the guys we’ve brought in, through the draft and by trade, are, we hope, going to continue the tradition,” Shannon said. “I honestly believe we have eight or nine legitimate pro prospects right now on this team, and that’s as many as anybody in the league right now.”

The players also sense something special is in the air, in the locker room and on the ice.

“It’s an honor to be a part of an organization that has put so many players to the next level,” forward Michael Chaput said. “The last couple years have been hard, but the team has really brought in some players that have that same kind level of play that the teams in the past here, like the team that went to the Memorial Cup, had.”

“You can tell, the team brought in a really good coaching staff, and made some trades for some good young players,” defenseman Sam Carrier said.

In 2003, when the QMJHL awarded Lewiston a franchise, Dillon Fournier, the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s draft, was eight years old. Until the Maineiacs acquired his older brother, Stefan, via trade, he’d never considered playing in Lewiston. But he’s still aware of the tradition. And he wants to be a big piece of it in the years to come.

“I’d like to keep that tradition going,” Dillon Fournier said sheepishly, “I hope I can go as far as some of these guys that have come through this team before.”

And, Shannon said, success should breed success. His hope is that, when enough former players begin to reach higher levels of hockey, the team can form an alumni organization of sorts, to help out the current team going forward.

“It’s no secret that when these players move on to the next level, there’s a certain financial stability that comes with that, and we’d love to be able to begin an alumni foundation that might help us make every player’s experience in Lewiston that much better, to put money back into the team for player development purposes,” Shannon said.

Still, with an eye on the past, the team remains focused on the present. And the future.

“We have a lot of young and exciting players now, and we can only hope that they are as popular around here in the years to come as some of the players who’ve come through here in the past,” Shannon said. “There have been a lot of good players in Lewiston over the years, and with any luck, this group is going to be the best group yet.”