LEWISTON – Two weeks ago, the Acadie-Bathurst Titan were in a tailspin.
They lacked in team chemistry, they couldn’t beat anyone and they fired former Lewiston Maineiacs head coach Mario Durocher.
The latter seems to have worked in patching up the rest of the problems. Since new head coach John Chabot took over, the Titan are 3-1 (they played a few games with an interim head coach), and have defeated Moncton twice in the last week.
“I would assume he’s not going to go in and change everything,” said Maineiacs assistant coach Ed Harding of Chabot.
“We’re expecting their power play to be very similar. One thing they have changed is their defense. We are going to have to keep the puck on the boards and out of the middle of the ice through the center zone.”
Mathieu Perreault has led the Titan’s charge with three goals and four assists in those four games, while Gabriel Bouthillette has taken credit between the pipes for all three wins.
Former Maineiacs netminder Maxime Joyal is the team’s backup, and could see action at the Colisee this afternoon.
The Maineiacs, meanwhile, are on the skids, having lost six of their last eight games, though they still cling to home ice advantage by the slimmest of margins over Halifax.
Line shuffle
Jakub Bundil’s upper-body injury has forced the coaching staff to shuffle some players around to accommodate his absence.
Most significantly, Chris Tutalo has been added to the top line with Mathieu Aubin and Marc-Andre Cliche, leaving a void on the third- and fourth-line combinations.
“He’s played with them since Bundil has been out,” said Harding. “He played a good game (in Chicoutimi on Friday). He fought hard, he battled well and he was a key factor in the goal we scored.”
Bundil, meanwhile, should be back to day-to-day status as early as next week, according to Harding.
Calling for backup?
Last year, Stefan Chaput made his Maineiacs debut late in the season and added a measure of depth to the team heading into the playoffs. This year, barring any unforeseen problems, the team seems happy to stick with what it has.
“Nothing at this point,” said Harding. “We’d thrown the idea around of maybe seeing David Taylor, but at this point we just hope to have Jakub Bundil and Derek Bailey back in the lineup.”
Taylor is currently playing for College Antoine-Girouard in Quebec Midget AAA. In the regular season, he had 24 goals and 55 total points to go with 118 penalty minutes in 44 games, while in the playoffs he has two assists in four games.
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