LEWISTON – Five years ago, on Sept. 19, 2003, Maxime Robert and Gabriel Balasescu kept the Lewiston Maineiacs close to the Drummondville Voltigeurs through the first period.

Sheldon Wenzel and Chad Denny picked up fighting majors in the second, as Drummondville took a 4-3 lead, and the Voltigeurs tacked on two more in the third to spoil the Maineiacs’ franchise-first home-opener 6-3.

Two nights later, Shawinigan came to town, and the Cataractes also came from behind to upend Lewiston, 3-2, to drop the fledgling team to 0-4 on the season.

Five years and five home-openers later, the Maineiacs, who started this season with the same Baie-Comeau-Chicoutimi road swing that they did in 2003, will open Season 6 at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee – against Shawinigan.

“I haven’t gotten younger?” Maineiacs’ coach Ed Harding joked. “You look at how much we’ve done; how far we’ve come as an organization in that time. It’s a completely different hierarchy.”

Indeed, Harding and team president Matt McKnight are the only two current full-time employees who were full-time in 2003.

But the brand of hockey remains the same. That, Harding said, is the most important thing.

“Once people realized how good the quality of hockey was, they were sold,” Harding said. “I think, too, once people started to see some of the kids who skated through here participate in the Stanley Cup playoffs, actually having skated in this building, that’s what’s really opened people’s eyes.

The roster of players has changed multiple times, of course, with several former Maineiacs now in the professional ranks.

This year, with four regular players still showing off their skills at various NHL training camps, Lewiston will begin its sixth chapter, against a team many pundits across the region consider to be among the best in the league.

“We’ve played them in the playoffs a few times in the past,” Harding said. “I think we’re probably two pretty evenly-matched teams, and it should be some entertaining hockey.”

The Cataractes had the most players (7) leave for professional camps this year, with the possibility that five will still be gone for Friday’s game. The Maineiacs will be short four players – Danick Paquette, Maxime Gratchev, Peter Delmas and Denis Reul.

If the Maineiacs want to win this weekend, Harding said, the key isn’t on the ice, but between the players’ own ears.

“Usually, in hockey, the smarter teams win,” Harding reiterated. “We need to be a little bit smarter.”

After a 6-5 season-opening win over Baie-Comeau last Friday, the Maineiacs fell in Chicoutimi, 6-1. Allowing 11 goals (though one was an empty-netter) is unacceptable, Harding said.

“That’s a huge concern for me,” Harding said. “I take a lot of pride in being one of the better teams in the league in goals against. Part of (the problem) is having some young guys, who need to understand the system. We got hurt off the rush in defensive transition, and we need to clean that up, and we got hurt on the PK because we didn’t stand in the shooting lanes.”

The other contributing factor to the high goals-against average has been the time Lewiston has spent killing penalties.

“We can’t be killing six or eight penalties a game,” Harding said. “It has to be five, maximum.”

Friday and Saturday night’s games at the Colisee both begin at 7 p.m.