LEWISTON — With the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Christmas break on the horizon, the Lewiston Maineiacs’ coaching staff is doing its best to keep the players as focused as possible on the daunting task at hand. Three games remain for the team in the four days leading up to the 10-day sojourn, beginning Wednesday at home against the PEI Rocket.

“I think it’s something we’re a little bit worried about, but it’s the same thing for the other teams,” coach J.F. Houle said. “You say it in a hockey game, you can’t stop playing until the last whistle. Same thing with this. You have to keep playing through the last minute of the last game and then you have your week off. But we still have a lot of work to do, there are a lot of games this week, and we have to prepare for those games.”

The Rocket are also facing three games in the next four nights, beginning with their visit to Lewiston. A sleeper team for many to begin the season, PEI has a handful of top 19-year-old skaters and one of the more experienced goaltenders in the league in Evan Mosher, a 20-year-old backstop currently 10th in the league with a 2.89 goals-against average.

“They’ve been hot and cold, but they have a good team,” Houle said. “They have some good players. Their goalie is a good goalie, there’s a lot of talk about him in the league. You have to get a lot of traffic in front of him, keep getting a lot of shots.”

PEI is coming off a weekend sweep of Cape Breton at home, but the Rocket have been all over the map in recent weeks. The team is 5-8 since Nov. 13, having earned three wins over Cape Breton and one each over Val d’Or and Moncton while losing to Saint John, Acadie-Bathurst and Gatineau twice, and also to Victoriaville and Quebec.

On the flip side, Lewiston’s month has been topsy turvy in a different way. The Maineiacs closed out November on a 7-1 run. It then took five games in December — until last Friday — for the team to find the win column again.

Then, with an emphatic statement, Lewiston snapped that skid with a win over CHL-leading Saint John.

“It’s very simple,” Houle said. “It’s the key saves. You get a key save from your goalie, it rallies up your team, everyone is excited, then you can go back and score goals. Nothing against (Lewiston backup keeper Andrey Makarov), he had a tough night (against Baie-Comeau last Tuesday), but if you don’t make the saves, it’s tough for the team.”

Out for the season

In a tough blow to the Maineiacs’ blue line, Zachary Evans-Renaud has been shut down for the season. The second-year defenseman, originally acquired from Cape Breton in the Eric Gelinas deal that ultimately resulted in the Olivier Roy transaction over the summer, will have surgery on his knee to repair a recurring problem.

“We didn’t want to lose anybody, but he’s been playing so well. It’s a big loss to lose a guy like him who was really starting to find his game,” Maineiacs’ general manager Roger Shannon said. “That in itself is tough. Defensemen are so hard to find, too.”

Evans-Renaud’s absence leaves the team with just six defensemen on the active roster for now.

“We’re going to have to do something here to make sure we have seven defensemen,” Houle said. “Whether we acquire one or call one up, I’m not sure what we’re going to do. It makes it easier for us in practice. It helps with depth if we have injuries or sickness.”

Illness again a factor

For now, the team’s illnesses are limited to the forwards. Three forwards will miss, or are in danger of missing Wednesday’s game against PEI. Jess Tanguy, the team’s second leading goal-scorer, had his wisdom teeth pulled over the weekend, and will resume skating this week, but will not play Wednesday. Two others — Matthew Bissonnette and Francis Beauvillier — are ill and did not skate Tuesday in practice. Their availability this week is still up in the air.

On a positive note for the team, Kirill Kabanov, who’d been sidelined with a upper-body injury, is expected to be on the ice Wednesday.

New goalie coach

The Maineiacs have hired an area coaching veteran to help mentor the team’s goaltenders. John Racine, a St. Dominic Academy graduate and former semi-professional goalie, has also served as a goaltending coach for St. Dom’s, the IJHL’s Maine Moose, and the University of New Hampshire’s club team.

“I’ve always had a passion for helping goaltenders,” Racine said in a team news release. “I have been a goalie coach since 1988, and I wanted to coach at a higher level.”

Racine has been with the Maineiacs’ organization in the past, once serving with his wife, Donna, as a billet family.

“It was important for us to find a coach that is local, as well as a person with some experience,” Maineiacs’ assistant GM Tim Schurman said in the release. “John is a great guy that is willing to do whatever he can to help our goaltenders get to the next level. Both goalies will benefit from having John around to work with.”

“The Maineiacs have had a history of producing top goaltenders,” Racine said. “The two goalies we have here now are very good. They have the potential to make it to the next level, and I’m here to help them along the way.”