Lewiston wraps up the season opening road trip this weekend with its only visits of the season to the Centre Henry-Leonard in Baie-Comeau and the Centre Georges Vezina in Chicoutimi. The two opponents the MAINEiacs will face on the trip are in stark contrast to one another. The Drakkar are poised to make the Western Division race real interesting before the regular season ends, and the Sagueneens are clearly looking to the future.

Baie-Comeau arrives home for just its second home game of the season and hold a 4-1 record, with victories against Chicoutimi (2), Rimouski & Halifax. The Drakkars lone defeat came at the hands of Drummondville. The lineup features experience and depth at virtually every position, lead by Alexandre Picard-Hooper. The 19 year old top line center is averaging two points a game in the early season (4-6-10, in 5 games). Not far behind are wingers Olivier Donais (3-5-8, 5 games) and Norwegian Joakim Jensen (3-3-6, 5 games).

Defensively, Baie-Comeau ices six veterans, five of which the MAINEiacs will likely face. Their blueline is lead by 20 year old Jean-Sebastien Adam, who split time with Moncton and Chicoutimi last season. Adam was hampered with an injury that kept him out of all but 26 games in the 2005-06 campaign. Adam is joined by 19 year olds Marc-Andre Dorion and Mathew Menard. Also returning to the Drakkar is 18 year old Maxime Ouimet and and 17 year old Adam Bourque-Leblanc. Out of the lineup  is 18 year old Alex Lamontagne, who had off-season shoulder surgery and may not be in the Baie-Comeau line up until November or December.

Michael Dupont returns between the pipes for Baie-Comeau for his third season, and perhaps is last. In 05-06, Dupont appeared in 48 games, posted a respectable 3.68 GAA and a .890 save percentage on a team that saw virtually its entire veteran blueliners traded last December. Dupont was selected in the sixth round (#175 overall) by the Philadelphia Flyers in the 2006 entry draft in June.

This is undoubtably the best team top to bottom that the Drakkar have had since they won the Jean Rougeau trophy for the leagues best regular season record in 2002-03, when they went 50-14-6-2. Just how far the Drakkar will go this season depends upon any deals that GM Jacques Tremblay consumates in the winter trade period. With Val d’Or and Quebec being the class of the west, Baie-Comeau will need to add veteran scoring depth in order to be considered an honest threat to compete down the stretch.

In Chicoutimi, the Sagueneens are a shell of last seasons team that finished third overall in the league as many players have left the Saguenay region due to retirement or via trade. Sags GM & Head Coach Richard Martel had a very busy offseason drafting and making deals to set his team up for year one of the rebuilding process.

Going into Friday, the Sags are 2-4 on the young season, but the loss column could be viewed as being a little deceiving. Two of Chicoutimi’s four losses came at the hands of arch-rival Baie-Comeau in overtime, and a third to Gatineau in a shootout. The other was a 4-1 defeat at the hands of the Shawinigan Cataractes. The Sags spoiled the Quebec Remparts home opener after defeating the Halifax Mooseheads the previous night in Chicoutimi.

The top end of the Sags roster feature a few names that are familiar. Despite being rumoured to play in Europe, veteran sniper David Desharnais returned to Chicoutimi for his overage year, along with winger Jean-Sebastien Cote and defenseman Julien Brouillette. The 19 year olds include pesky sniper Francis Paul-Verreault, Milwaukee, WI native winger Joel Rechlicz, Ontarian winger Jeff Christison, veteran defenseman Sebastien Bernier, and skilled centerman Nicolas Blanchard. Blanchard was drafted late in the sixth round (#196 overall) by the Carolina Hurricanes in the 2005 NHL entry draft.

The Sags have two new European players in thier lineup for the 06-07 campaign. Slovakian native winger Juraj Mikus was selected early in the fifth round of the 2005 NHL entry (#121 overall) draft by the Montreal Canadiens - nine spots ahead of former MAINEiac Mathieu Aubin. Mikus lists as 6′ / 197lbs and is a 19 year old. Russian defenseman Kirill Tulupov was selected early in the third round (#67 overall) by the New Jersey Devils in the 2006 NHL entry draft. Tulupov packs some size at 6′ 3″ / 216 lbs, and should provide the fans in Saguenay something to look forward to at the arena every night.

Between the posts for the Sags this year is Bobby “Suitcase” Nadeau, who at the age of 18 has been on more QMJHL clubs in two seasons than most NHL players are on in a career. The Sags are Nadeau’s fourth club since the begining of the 2005-06 campaign, which started out in Quebec, then a deal that sent him to Drummondville, and then onto Val d’Or, all in a three week span last December & January. At the QMJHL entry draft this past June, Nadeau was a part of a mini-blockbuster deal that sent him from the Foreurs along with rookie winger Hubert Poulin and a fourth round pick to Chicoutimi for goaltender Alexandre Vincent and defenseman Louis-Etienne Leblanc. Despite the rapid changes in postal codes, Nadeau still managed to post a 3.70 GAA and 0.893 save percentage for the season, which is quite remarkable given the weakness of what Val d’Or was last season. Already in the young year, Nadeau was awarded defensive player honors this week by the league for his remarkable performances against Quebec & Gatineau last weekend.

Certainly not to be taken lightly, the Sags still pose enough threats offensively and defensively to give the veteran clubs a hard time. One thing that will work in the MAINEiacs advantage is that the Sags travel to Drummondville for an 8:00 PM game Friday evening and then travel back to Chicoutimi to battle Lewiston Saturday afternoon, which will make the short rest factor for both clubs due to travel virtually a push.

Join the voice of the MAINEiacs Jeff Mannix at 7:00 Friday and 3:30 Saturday afternoon for the IBEW/NECA Pregame Show for all the latest news, followed by his call of the games on the SoundFX Lewiston MAINEiacs radio network on ESPN 1470 AM in the Lewiston / Auburn area, and hopefully soon to a PC near you.

As always, news, rumours, questions & comments appreciated. offthepost@lewistonhockey.com