LEWISTON — It was only a matter of time.

The Lewiston Maineiacs relied on collective team speed for most of the season. Three of the team’s speedsters — Pierre-Olivier Morin, Etienne Brodeur and Kirill Kabanov — played with different line combinations all year long, helping bolster each group’s speed factor and making the Maineiacs a constant threat.

But with two games remaining in the regular season, the team’s coaching staff shook things up again.

“(Maineiacs’ coach J.F. Houle) talked to me about playing center the last two games of the year, and I really enjoyed that,” Morin said.

“(Morin)’s got speed, and I just didn’t feel like he was getting his speed going,” Houle said. “By putting him at center, it seems like he’s playing much better.”

With Morin in the middle and Kabanov and Brodeur on either side of him, the Maineiacs were hoping to unleash a monster of a line that would help carry the team’s offense.

“It’s tough sometimes to find the right chemistry and the right players,” Houle said. “Those three players have speed and they all work hard, so it can be pretty dangerous. They all have skill, they work hard and they have speed. Those three things are pretty dangerous.”

Dangerous on paper, sure. But it took a few games for them to figure each other out.

“I think the first two games (of the playoffs), we didn’t get any goals, but we had the chances,” Morin said. “We got, in Game 4, I think, everything we were touching was going in the net. It was a 4-3 game in overtime, and it was pretty good to have our line on the ice and get the overtime goal. It’s really good for the confidence. When you go to games in the playoffs and you know you need to contribute and you don’t have any goals, the pressure comes to you more every game.”

“It took a couple of games for those guys to find each other, but now they’re really clicking,” Houle added. “Hopefully they can keep playing like this through the playoffs.”

Morin wasn’t the only player to reap the benefits of the new line.

“I think it helped my game, and I think it helped their game, too,” Brodeur said. “When the other ‘D’ play against us, I think they can be scared of us now because we have that speed and they have to respect us. That’s maybe why we’ve been getting more chances.”

Lewiston will need its new-found fearsome trio when it takes on Montreal in the second round of this year’s QMJHL playoffs. The Junior lost only 12 games in regulation this season against 46 victories, finished second in the league’s overall standings and won what was arguably the toughest division in the league.

But Lewiston scoring, the team and coaching staff agree, will have to come from more than one hot line.

“It’s good to know that, when we’re on the bench, that the third and fourth lines can score, get some goals and take some pressure off the other lines,” Morin said. “In the playoffs, each goal is very important, so if these guys can get a goal, it’s a big boost for us.”

“The way we play, as long as we keep it tight, we have to make sure we play good defense,” Houle said. “Then we can score by committee. We have four good lines that can play, and anybody can score on any given night. But the guys on the power play, the guys who have been scoring all year are most likely the ones who should be scoring.”

Lewiston’s playoff quest continues with Round 2 against Montreal on the road Friday at 7 p.m. and Saturday at 3 p.m. Games 3 and 4 are scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday next week, both at 7 p.m. at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee.