SHAWINIGAN, Quebec – An advantage of practicing more than half an hour away from the game site (without your opponent knowing where you are) is making changes to the lineup that may catch the opponent off guard.
At Friday’s morning skate in Trois Rivieres, Lewiston Maineiacs’ coach Clem Jodoin had some excellent news for the team, and some interesting news.
First, a visibly motivated Alexandre Picard, who played after taking a week off to be with his family, was flying in practice. Alex Bourret’s wish to have his linemate back was granted, but with a twist: Picard and Bourret skated on different lines in practice and that translated into coverage issues in the game for the Shawinigan Cataractes.
Mathieu Aubin also made a guest appearance on the ice Friday at practice, and again during the game, seeing mostly power play and penalty-kill time, but still adding yet another coverage problem for the Cataractes.
And if those weren’t enough, Chad Denny, who surprised many fans Sunday with a hat trick while playing forward, reprised that role Friday. Victoriaville had been the only team to witness that strategy all season.
Old Barn
The Colisee, in its days as the Central Maine Youth Center and as the Central Maine Civic Center, was affectionately known as “the old barn.”
It was near luxury compared to the rink in Shawinigan, the Jacques Plante Arena.
While Jacques Plante Arena is quaint, and reeks of old-time hockey in all of its glory (Michel Briere, Marcel Giguere and Benoit Plouffe have numbers retired to the rafters), it also had narrow halls and made moving around in the caverns below ice level difficult while trying to prepare for the game.
The seats of the old building are all benches – long and colored red, blue and yellow – that stretch from ice level to seven rows above. Beyond that, a partition divides standing room platforms from the rest of the crowd. There is one large concession area near the front entrance and four taverns. A makeshift camera tower was put in place for the playoffs above the Maineiacs’ bench.
Perhaps the most interesting piece of the arena is a figure of an Indian attached to a cable above the ice. When Shawinigan scores a goal, the Indian buzzes down from the rafters and stops at center ice, pointing toward the scoreboard.
Making the trip
Short notice was an obstacle, but not a deterrent, as more than 100 Maineiacs fans, many of them riding on a fan bus, arrived less than an hour before game time to help cheer the team on. Several of the players’ families also littered the crowd, which was, as expected, raucous from the moment the doors opened.
I want to play’
Both Colby Gilbert and Maxime Mathieu did their best to get on the ice Friday. Gilbert came a little bit closer, practicing with the team in Trois Rivieres in the morning and skating warmups with the team prior to the game. Still, both players are listed as day-to-day and still may see action in this playoff series.
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