The Lewiston MAINEiacs continue their season opening road trip with the first of four games in La Belle province tonight against the defending Memorial Cup champion Quebec Remparts. This is a key early season match up between two heavyweight opponents that could end up meeting in the latter stages of the playoffs come April. The MAINEiacs will look to regroup from Sunday’s loss in Moncton in preparation for tonight’s critical match up.

The Remparts got off to a slow start to the season with three consecutive losses. In Drummondville to start the season, the Voltigeurs peppered new Rempart goaltender Loic Lacasse with 51 shots and had 6 different goal scorers in defeating Quebec 6-2 at Centre Marcel Dionne. Roman Bashkirov scored in his first QMJHL game, and veteran Maxime Lacroix had the other goal for the Remparts. Angelo Esposito recorded assists on both goals.

Two nights later in Victoriaville, the Remparts went 0-15 on the power play in getting shutout 6-0 at the hands of the Tigres at Colisee Dejardins. Victo netminder Jean-Christophe Blanchard turned away all 28 Rempart shots he faced. Lacasse stopped 32 in the loss.

Last Friday night, the Remparts hoisted their Memorial Cup banner in front of over 14,000 at Colisee Pepsi to celebrate the championship from last season. However, a revamped Chicoutimi club spoiled the party as the Sagueneens defeated Quebec 3-2. Sags netminder Bobby Nadeau was on fire, turning away 40 of 42 shots to earn the victory. Lacasse, who set aside 32 of 35 attempts, received his third consecutive loss. Lacroix and Ruslan Bashkirov scored for the Remparts.

The tide would turn for Quebec on Sunday. Halifax rolled into the provincial capital and would battle back from a 3-1 deficit to tie the game up 6-6 with 12:56 remaining in the third, just for Angelo Esposito to score his first goal of the season at the 14:49 mark and the Remparts would hold off the Mooseheads 7-6 to win their first game of the year. Brent Aubin had two goals, Joey Ryan, Lacroix and both Bashkirov twins would factor in the Rempart scoring. Rempart back up netminder Kevin Defosses turned away 25 of 31 shots to earn the victory.

What’s new in Quebec

The Remparts come into the season ranked 5th out of the 58 teams that make up the entire Canadian Hockey League, according to the recent preseason MasterCard Mosaik CHL Top 10 poll, despite losing some key players from last seasons Memorial Cup winning team. Gone are F Alexander Radulov (61-91-152, 62 games), D Michal Sersen (22-57-79, 63 games), F Mathieu Melanson (42-44-86, 59 games), F Jordan LaVallee (18-19-37, 37 games), G Cedrick Desjardins, and of course F Simon Courcelles (12-52-64, 69 games).

Quebec added G Loic Lacasse of Drummondville (formerly of Baie-Comeau) came in via trade. F Maxime Sauve (first round, 18th overall) and F Kelsey Tessier (4th round, 66th overall) are from the 2006 QMJHL draft. Forwards Roman and Ruslan Bashkirov, Russian twins, are from the 2006 European draft.

Add those players with a soild core of returning players D Marc-Edouard Vlasic (16-57-73, 66 games), D Andrew Andricopoulos (10-33-43, 70 games), D Joey Ryan (6-18-24, 61 games), F Brent Aubin (57-60-117, 72 games), F Angelo Esposito (39-59-98, 57 games), F Maxime Lacroix (25-22-47, 70 games), F Kenzie Sheppard (19-12-31, 58 games) and added D Billy Bezeau (4-32-36, 63 games) via trade over the weekend. The early season slide that the Remparts have been on will likely turn around and turn Quebec into a formidable opponent come playoff time.

Join Jeff Mannix at 6:30 PM this evening for the IBEW/NECA Pregame Show followed by the game at 7:00 on the SoundFX MAINEiacs Radio Network 1470 AM ESPN Radio for all the latest news.

Quick Hits:

Victoriaville traded overager D Billy Bezeau to Quebec for a 5th round draft pick in 2008. Rumour on the street is Rempart LW Nicholas Robillard could be the odd overager out, and his destination could be St. John’s… In a quick discussion with Matt McKnight late yesterday, no further news from US Immigration on getting visas in order for MAINEiac players Michal Korenko & Jakub Bundil, and will likely be out of the lineup tonight… The video boards are in and operational the Androscoggin Bank Colisee along with the new ice compressors. In fact, the ice was being painted yesterday in preparation for the season…. Yesterday’s MMPP attracted a little interest on RocketTalk with one fan remembering the situation of the Sherbrooke Castors being denied the lease by the Charlottetown Civic Centre’s board of governors.

Watching The Wire:

The Boston Bruins assigned former Wildcat F Martins Karsums and Olympique F David Krejci to Providence.

The Columbus Blue Jackets returned C Derick Brassard to Drummondville.

The Philadelphia Flyers assigned former Moosehead F Frederick Cabana and former Screaming Eagle G Martin Houle to the Phantoms and returned D Oskars Bartulis to Cape Breton.

The Pittsburgh Penguins assigned former Screaming Eagle F Stephen Dixon to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

As always, news, rumours, questions and comments appreciated. psmaineiac@yahoo.com