When ‘D’ turns to ‘O’

With the Maineiacs searching for goal scoring as the season wound down, the team started to turn to some unlikely sources of offense: its defensemen.

“That’s what we need from those defensemen, we need them to elevate their game in the playoffs,” Lewiston coach J.F. Houle said. “Same thing with the forward lines. Brodeur started slow, but he picked it up, same for the rest of the forwards. It’s a learning experience for everybody, but we need everybody going if we’re going to beat Montreal.”

When the playoffs hit, and Lewiston again started to search for offense, the team’s defenders again stepped up. Ian Saab completed one of the better offensive plays by a defenseman in Game 5 of the first round at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee, swiping the puck from a Moncton defender at the blue line and breaking out 2-on-1 with Stefan Fournier.

“Whenever our ‘D’ can jump in on an odd-man rush, we want them to jump in,” Houle said. “That’s how you get goals nowadays. It’s tough to score 5-on-5, and odd-man rushes are the only chances you get sometimes.”

Solid scheduling

Given the Maineiacs’ insistence that their playoff run is predicated on depth, Lewiston was more than pleased to hear about the schedule for the second round of the playoffs.

After a 7 p.m. start Friday, the teams turned around and skated again Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. It was a favorable schedule for Lewiston, according to the team’s coaches.

“I really like that the Saturday game was at three o’clock,” Houle said. “It gave our team a chance to get back to Lewiston at a decent hour and sleep in our own beds and have a good night’s sleep instead of getting back at three or four in the morning. I really like that part of the schedule.”

Rules question

After Game 1, a 6-5 Montreal victory in overtime, much of the Lewiston Maineiacs’ staff was focused on a particular call in the second period, a call that disallowed a Lewiston goal after a seven-plus minute video review that ultimately reversed the call of a goal on the ice.

The issue at hand was whether the net was off its moorings when the puck crossed the line after Stefan Fournier’s deke to the backhand crossed up goalie Jean-Francois Berube, and whether that even matters. The Montreal keeper slid backwards into the left post and kicked the pipe out of place as Fournier shot and scored.

Officials deemed that the goal should not count, because Berube’s act of knocking the post off was accidental.

However, according to Rule 63.6 in the QMJHL rule book, “In the event that the goal post is displaced, either deliberately or accidentally, by a defending player or goalkeeper, prior to the puck crossing the goal line between the normal position of the goalposts, the referee may award a goal.”

Team officials and players would not comment on the call Saturday, but team officials had been in touch with the league about the concern by Saturday afternoon.