LEWISTON — It’s been a while — too long for some, but just perfect for others.

And Sunday, after nearly eight full days with no game action, the Lewiston Maineiacs will hit home ice for just the second time in the month of November, hosting the red-hot, league-leading Saint John Sea Dogs in a 4 p.m. matinee at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee.

“I don’t think it was a bad thing for us (to be off for so long),” Maineiacs coach Don MacAdam said. “We were playing with a close-to-thin roster, and it was good for us to stop and take a break. A deep breath and a rest was good for us.”

The Maineiacs began the season like a house afire, jumping out to a 6-2 start in their first eight games. But the team stumbled as the schedule toughened, going 4-10-0-1. As the record fell, so did the team’s special units. With a full week to work on things, MacAdam and his staff spent plenty of time working on it.

“Normally with some time off, we spend it working on things that obviously need to be worked on,” MacAdam said. “In this case, when the PK started to struggle, it struggled big time, and we have to go back to the basics.”

Billy Lacasse, who sat out a few games earlier this month with a knee injury, is back on the mend this week and will not play Sunday. The staff said this week they hope to have him back and ready for next weekend’s doubleheader at home against PEI.

Meanwhile, the rest of the squad, some of whom had battled sickness this week, is healthy.

“That’s one of the good things about having the time off, we got a lot healthier in general,” MacAdam said. “We had a few guys take a few days off here and there with some sickness, but everyone is ready to go now.”

The team will face a stiff challenge Sunday. The Sea Dogs have won 14 consecutive games, including an overtime victory over Drummondville on Friday, and has been dominating most games.

“We had two very interesting exhibition games against them,” MacAdam said, “but obviously the team is much different now than it was then. They’ve done a great job bringing in the right guys.”

Mike Hoffman, one of the linchpins in the Drummondville attack last season, joined the Sea Dogs in the offseason, as did Nicholas Petersen, who was a top-liner for Shawinigan.

“Last year, in my limited time here, I felt Hoffman was one of, if not the best, most complete player in the league,” MacAdam said.

Lewiston will play a mid-week road game in Shawinigan on Wednesday before returning to the Colisee for a pair of post-Thanksgiving home games against PEI on Friday and Saturday.