LEWISTON — In one week, the Lewiston Maineiacs dropped from second in their division to fourth while losing three consecutive games by a combined score of 18-4. The streak is the first string of consecutive losses on the young season for Lewiston, but despite the recent results, the team isn’t hanging its head.

“We’ve had an excellent week of practice, guys have been really up-beat,” Lewiston coach Don MacAdam said. “There’s been no sign of a lack of confidence in the way the guys have been acting or practicing.”

MacAdam enlisted the help of Toronto Maple Leafs skating coach Graeme Townshend, a former player of his for the PEI Senators in the mid-1990s, this week.

“Sometimes, just a little tweak to something that’s already working well can mean such an improvement,” MacAdam said.

And there is need for improvement, particularly, MacAdam said, in the team’s in-zone coverage.

“We lost the third period, cleanly and badly,” MacAdam said of the team’s last home game, a loss to Drummondville. “Part of that was not spreading the load around enough on the PK when we had so many penalties to kill, and part of it was our net-front coverage, which contributed to our overall D-zone coverage not being very good.”

The Maineiacs will host the Val d’Or Foreurs for a pair of games this weekend at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee.

The Foreurs have been schitzophrenic at best this season. They can score plenty of goals, netting 69 so far this season, good for fifth in the league. Their power play is at better than 21 percent, too.

But Val d’Or can’t seem to stop other teams from scoring either. The Foreurs have allowed a league-high 92 goals against, and sit last in penalty-kill percentage (72.7 percent). They’ve also taken the second-most number of penalties this season, amassing 343 minutes over 19 games.

“Watching them last year, I was really impressed with their younger players,” MacAdam said. “As they grow and mature, you have to think the team will get better, too.”

One of those younger players is Lewiston forward Sam Henley’s brother, Cedrick.

But it’s been a host of older players leading the charge for the Foreurs this year, including impressive Boston Bruins draft pick Maxime Sauve, who has 23 points in 15 games this season. Defenseman Simon Lacroix on Wednesday set a personal best with four points in a 5-4 victory over Victoriaville, and he and Sauve are big pieces of the potent power play unit.

Even with all of that, MacAdam said his ficus remains a bit closer to home.

“We’re not so mush thinking about Val d’Or as getting our own D-zone coverage in place and getting some other team things back on track,” MacAdam said.

Both games this weekend are scheduled to start at 7 p.m.