LEWISTON – They won 50 games, earned 106 points and went 24-5-2 after Jan. 1 en route to winning the Jean Rougeau Trophy as the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s regular-season champion.

And they played their home games at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee.

Those were the 2007 Lewiston Maineiacs, who also tore through the playoffs in 17 games to also earn the President’s Cup and a berth in the Memorial Cup tournament in Vancouver.

This year, the shoe is decidedly on the other foot.

Thursday, to cheers from a handful of fans who showed up to show their support, the Maineiacs boarded a bus bound for Drummondville.

The Voltigeurs won 54 games this season, earned 112 points and went 23-6-1 after Jan. 1 en route to winning the Jean Rougeau Trophy as the QMJHL’s regular-season champion.

The Volts’ playoff run is yet to be determined, of course. First up? Those Maineiacs, who for the first time in six years, will be heavy underdogs in the first round of the playoffs.

Three players on the team’s current roster played on the Maineiacs’ most successful team to date: defenseman Patrick Cusack, forward Danick Paquette and goaltender Peter Delmas.

But coach Don MacAdam is insistent on this team finding its own identity, for this season, and for future seasons.

“We expect everyone to be involved mentally and emotionally, as far as motivating is concerned,” MacAdam said. “The other side of it is, going forward, all of our players will now have been to the playoffs.”

The task of beating Drummondville, meanwhile, is part of the here and now, not an element of the future. And that task is a daunting one.

“We need to be well-disciplined when we play, and that doesn’t just mean not taking bad penalties,” MacAdam said. “We have a certain way we need to play, in the offensive zone, in the defensive zone. It’s definitely a David vs. Goliath, but that’s all right with us.”

Up front

The Volts are, in a word, explosive. This season, Drummondville has scored 345 goals in 68 games, an average of more than five goals per game. And the Volts have done it by spreading things around. Ten players have scored more than 10 goals, seven of those 10 have more than 20, four have more than 30 and two have better than 50 goals this season.

“They’re a team with no mercy,” MacAdam said. “It doesn’t matter the score; they’ll take no mercy on us. We have to keep them off the power play, and we have to be conscious where we move the puck.”

With such an explosive offense, it’s little surprise that the team’s biggest asset is its power play. The Voltigeurs have scored 122 power-play goals this season and have a 31.9 percent efficiency rate with an extra skater.

“We have to keep them off the power play as much as possible,” MacAdam said. “They have a tremendous power play.”

Mike Hoffman and Yannick Riendeau have been the most prolific for the Volts this season, with a combined 110 goals (48 on the power play) between them.

On the other side, Lewiston’s offense is a bit top-heavy. Max Gratchev barely had more points (61) than Riendeau had goals (58).

And he led the team.

Danick Paquette and Billy Lacasse also topped 20 goals for Lewiston, while Alex Beaton chimed in with 14 and a team-high 33 assists.

Holding the (blue) line

The bulk of the Maineiacs’ strength all season has been on the blue line. Patrick Cusack and Denis Reul headline this group as 19-year-olds, and are both solid as in-zone, defensive players. On the offensive side of things, the Maineiacs are going to need help from the likes of Eric Gelinas and Garrett Clarke, especially on the power play

On the other side, one of the best players in the league patrols the Drummondville back end: Dmitry Kulikov. The Russian-born 18-year-old defenseman has 62 points in just 57 games this season as a rookie, and will be one of the more highly-coveted defensemen at this summer’s NHL draft. Of course, fellow blue-liners Marc-Antoine Desnoyers and Patrik Prokop are no slouches either, each tallying more than 25 points while playing solid, shutdown defense.

Tending the goal

If there is one area where the Maineiacs are, on paper, equal to the Volts, it’s in the blue paint between the pipes.

Despite some sub-standard and inconsistent play through the early and middle parts of the season, both Peter Delmas and newer-to-the-team Adrien Lemay have played well over the final two months of the season.

“Our goaltending has been our strongest, most consistent part of our team, night in and night out,” MacAdam said. “It has to be in the playoffs, too.”

Delmas is coming off a solid performance, allowing just two power-play goals against in a 3-2 shootout loss to Chicoutimi on Sunday.

The Volts, meanwhile, rely on Antoine Tardif to get the job done on most nights. Tardif, acquired in the offseason by Drummondville, had a decent year, with a 2.75 GAA and an .893 save percentage. But his playoff record is less than stellar. In five games played with Acadie-Bathurst, Tardif is just 1-3, having allowed 18 total goals.

The Maineiacs play Games 1 and 2 in Drummondville on Friday and Saturday nights, and return home to host the Volts on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Colisee.