LEWISTON – It will be a wonder if this afternoon’s patrons at the Colisee recognize the home team skating in black and blue jerseys. The Lewiston Maineiacs have been off for eight days, allowing the team to get healthy. The last game the Maineiacs played at the Colisee was on Jan. 5 against Victoriaville – 17 days ago.
“We’ll know tomorrow (if it was a good thing of a bad thing),” said Maineiacs assistant coach Ed Harding. “I think we needed the rest.”
The Maineiacs face P.E.I., a team the Maineiacs waxed 6-2 and outshot 51-18 back on Dec. 16 at the Colisee.
“They’re a much different team since then,” said Harding. “Last time we played them, I thought we smothered them with our speed. We were actually surprised (during the trade period). They had said they were going in a different direction than they did.”
Instead of riding out a rough season with some younger players in the hopes of building for next year, the Rocket, who currently sit in seventh place in the Eastern Division, one point ahead of the Saint John Sea Dogs for last place.
“They’re a better hockey team than that,” said Harding. “They are better on defense, adding (Travis) Mealy and (Jean-Claude) Milot.”
Welcome back…again
When Travis Mealy played at the Colisee in December, less than one year after being traded from the Maineiacs to the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies, he was happy beyond words. On his trip back, he visited with his former billet family and got to hang out with his friends still on the team.
Also at the time, he expressed concern about a potential trade from the Huskies. The next day Rouyn-Noranda traded him to P.E.I.
Following the holiday break, Mealy took his time to report to the Rocket, but has since settled in with his new team. At least one positive for the 20-year-old defenseman, though, is that he will get a couple more chances to meet up with his friends on the Lewiston team.
Plenty of competition
No player’s position on the ice is safe.
This is the message being sent from the coaching staff to all of the Maineiacs’ skaters as they move forward to the final two months of the regular season.
“The guys we have are not extra guys,” said Harding. “Two forwards at anytime have to sit out, but those players could easily be on the ice, too. It could be Alex Hager, Maxime Mathieu, Pier-Luc Champagne, Eric Castonguay, Jakub Bundil. They could be extra guys, too. It’s given practice a little bit of an extra pace, too.”
Around the league
Moncton is starting to pull away in the Eastern Division thanks to a 4-1 win over Acadie-Bathurst on Friday night. The Wildcats, who have 33 wins against just 10 losses this season, have won nine in a row and are three points ahead of the Titan and also have three games in hand, one of which came Saturday night against Baie-Comeau.
Cape Breton, meanwhile, is distancing itself from Halifax and is five points back of Bathurst for second with a game in hand.
On the other side, in the Western Conference, Chicoutimi continues to cling to the conference lead with 67 points on 32 wins, but the Quebec Remparts are in good position in the coming weeks to make it a battle. The Remparts also have 32 wins and have played four fewer games than the Sagueneens. Despite trading away most of its veterans, Rouyn-Noranda continues to hold down the third spot behind Chicoutimi and Quebec.
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