The Maineiacs take advantage of a break to get ready to host Baie-Comeau Saturday.
LEWISTON – For the first time this season and thanks to two tournaments, the Lewiston Maineiacs will dress everyone for a game Saturday night when they host the Baie-Comeau Drakkar at the Central Maine Civic Center.
Both teams will be short a couple of players because of the Under-17 tournament in Canada, and the Maineiacs will be missing two additional players thanks to the IIHF World Junior Championships in Finland.
Benefiting from that switch will be Maxime Brunet and Kevin Talbot, two rookies who have not seen much ice time this season.
“The stretch of four games we have, right through the Drummondville game in a week and a half, is going to allow some players to get some more exposure,” said Maineiacs coach Ed Harding. “Some of the guys who may not have played a huge role get to play a bigger role now.”
But the glass might well be more than half full for the Maineiacs. The players, although coming from various locations throughout Canada and the United States, will be playing at home. Baie-Comeau, on the other hand, will need to regroup as a team at home before making the trek to Lewiston to play on the road.
“Certainly we have to be thinking of that,” said Harding. “We all would have had to be back early (Friday) morning if we had to be on the road tomorrow, but as it is, we won’t have all of the guys back until (Saturday) morning.”
The long break allowed many players to break from their routine. But according to Harding, the layoff had its benefits, too.
“Some of the guys were a bit banged up and they could use this time off to heal a bit,” said Harding. “The important thing is that everyone remembers those things that we all learned in the few days leading up to the break.”
On the ice, the Drakkar have made one change to their lineup, acquiring 18-year-old Mario Frechette from Val d’Or for a draft pick in 2005, giving the Drakkar extra experience at forward. The Drakkar already have experience in the likes of Robin Leblanc (37 points in 29 games) and Alexandre Blais (33 points in 38 games).
In net, the Drakkar have been suspect this season. Julien Walsh, although he played a solid game against Lewiston last time out, has struggled to a 3.32 goals-against average and a .902 save percentage. Brandon Verge’s 2.96 goals-against average for Lewiston has him ranked 13th overall in the league, but he jumps to No. 8 when you take into account only those players with 20 or more games played this season.
“He’s probably the one player I really didn’t want to have a break,” confessed Harding. “He played very well into the break.”
In his last game, Verge was brilliant when he needed to be against Chicoutimi, and recorded a 2-0 shutout. The game Saturday is the last of 2003 for the Maineiacs at home. Lewiston travels to Quebec for a New Year’s Eve game against the Remparts, and will welcome the New Year with a home game against P.E.I. on Jan. 2.
NOTES: Team Canada, led by Maineiacs coach Mario Durocher, won its first game of the IIHF World Junior Championship on Friday, a 3-0 blanking of host Finland. Team U.S.A, meanwhile, won handily, 8-0, over Austria, while Slovakia used an assist from Maineiacs’ forward Vladislav Balaz to tie defending champs Russia 2-2…Matt Davis, sidelined for several weeks due to a back injury, will be in the lineup on Saturday as a backup to Brandon Verge. Davis had one practice with the team before the break, and took his equipment home to get some more ice time in preparation for this weekend’s backup stint. According to Harding, Davis will be a day-to-day decision, but will remain the backup for now.
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