The Radio Voice of the MAINEiacs Jeff Mannix checks in with more news and notes from the road… 

Another long day of travel for the team yesterday. The team had a 5:00 a.m. (3:30 a.m. Eastern) wake-up call to be on the bus for the airport by 5:30 a.m. (4:00 a.m. Eastern). The bus pulled into the St. John’s International Airport a little before 6:00 a.m. (4:30 a.m. Eastern). The flight for Halifax left at 7:15 a.m. (5:45 a.m. Eastern) and landed at Halifax International Airport at 8:20 a.m. Atlantic (7:20 a.m. Eastern). After some three hours to rest, the team went to lunch and had an hour-and-a-half long practice at the Metro Centre. The team will be here until tomorrow, when they play in Moncton, then back to Halifax to play on Thursday. After a trip to Cape Breton for a Friday night game, the team will have a Saturday lunch in Chad Denny’s hometown on the Eskasoni First Nation reservation on Cape Breton Island. After that, team returns to Halifax to prepare for the Sunday finale to the trip against the Mooseheads.

MAINEiacs Fifth Round draft choice Alex Beaton, who is from the Halifax area and plays Midget AAA hockey across the harbor in Dartmouth, practiced with the team yesterday and appeared to fit right in. He skated a lot with fourth-liners Tristan Manson, Danick Paquette, and Chris Tutalo and was with them every step of the way. His shot was very good, drawing ooohs and aahs from MAINEiacs players after deking starting goalie Jonathan Bernier down and riffling a shot over his glove top-shelf in a breakout drill. Beaton has seven goals and 17 assists so far in 14 games for the Dartmouth Subways of the Nova Scotia Major Midget Hockey League. That’s the second-best total on his team and tied for fourth-best in the league. He is going to be a very good player for Lewiston in the future, likely next year, or maybe even before the end of this year if the right circumstances present themselves.

As for the games in Newfoundland this weekend, obviously the Sunday result was very disappointing. The team was very quiet during dinner on Sunday night following the game, still trying to swallow what had happened. Any game that you appear to have won and you lose is never easy. But, this is not completely a case of Lewiston letting one slip away. Credit must also be given to the St. John’s Fog Devils for coming out with a lot of heart and determination in that third period. Devin O’Brien played a very good third period in net in relief of Ilia Ejov, and his strong play in the middle portion of the period ,and then once the team had the lead, was a big difference. Lewiston was a little bit lax in defensive zone and some mental mistakes ended up costing them. It is, however, a learning opportunity for the team. They have now seen that no matter how big a lead they have going into the final period, they need to play well to finish off the game. This sort of result happens in junior hockey to the best teams out there, and it is no different with Lewiston. I had flashbacks of Lewiston’s four unanswered goals in the third against Moncton to erase a three-goal deficit going into the third to win from last season while doing Sunday’s game. An early goal got the Fog Devils back in the game, and snowball started rolling from there.

On some positive notes, Chris Tutalo had a breakout weekend. He finally showed some of that promise he came in with last December for consecutive games. Last year, we saw it here and there, but never in consecutive games. This weekend, Tutalo put together two very strong games. He played well with the puck, and he made the right decisions with it, and didn’t get discouraged when things went wrong. Lewiston’s first goal Sunday was a direct result of Tutalo making a smart decision. There were other players who had better looks at the net than he did, but instead of trying to pass through defenders as he has done in the past, he wristed a shot on net, causing a big rebound that Kevin Marshall scored on. It was a play that showed Tutalo’s hockey sense. He was rewarded with a goal on a rebound later because he went to the net off a faceoff. If he can continue his string of success from the weekend, Chris may finally be able to reach his potential to help this hockey team.

Stefan Chaput has also appered to have broken out of his draught. The problem appeared to be timing coming back from Carolina Hurricanes camp. For the first ten games or so, he still appeared to be going at NHL speed, which is too quick for the Q. Now that he mind and body have caught back up with the level of play in this league, the results are showing. Since last Sunday’s game in Saint John, Chaput has three goals and four assists in four games. His emergence is obviously a good sign for the MAINEiacs.

As for Marc-Andre Cliche, he’s still wait and see. His injury was an odd one to say the least on Saturday night. Three minutes into the game, he went into the corner in the offensive zone and got in a stick battle with a St. John’s defenseman. That player lost his stick, and that caused Cliche to lose his balance. When he fell, he twisted around and actually hit his nose on the ice. It was basically the same amount of force as a getting a hard punch to the bridge of the nose. So, as you can imagine, Cliche became quite disoriented. The team is taking it easy with him for now. He’s still questionable for Wednesday’s game against Moncton.

Special thanks again to Jeff keeping us updated while the MAINEiacs are on the road.

Streaking:

MAINEiacs rookie C David Perron has a seven game point streak working, dating back to October 13th. Perron has four goals and five assists over the period… Both D Chad Denny and LW Stefano Giliati have four game streak in progress with Denny scoring seven points (2 goals, 5 assists) and Giliati six points (1 goal, 5 assists)… Cape Breton C Cam Fergus has a 20 game point streak going, with 17 goals and 21 assists through last night’s game, the longest active streak in the QMJHL.

King Of The League:

Lewiston G Jonathan Bernier remains tops in the league with a 2.49 GAA and is fifth overall in save percentage with a 0.902. Bernier is the only goalie in the QMJHL with a GAA less than 3 with over 600 minutes of ice time. Along with fellow netminder Peter Delmas, the two continue to lead the league with a combined 2.78 GAA and are second in save percentage at 0.895.

Ministers Of Defense:

MAINEiacs D Kevin Marshall is currently tied with Baie-Comeau’s Keven Dupont for the league defensive leaders in plus/minus at +14, with D Chad Denny just behind at +12.

Val d’Or Gets Help:

The Pittsburgh Penguins announced yesterday that they have returned D Kristopher Letang back to Foreurs. Letang had two goals and was a +3 in seven games for the Pens. Val d’Or will welcome back Letang with open arms as the Foreurs have struggled as a team on defense as just six players are in positive plus/minus territory. Val d’Or is 10-5-1-1 and sits tied for fourth in the Western Division with the Quebec Remparts, four points behind the division leading Shawinigan Cataractes. The Foreurs are 6-4 in their last 10 games.

Garrett Robinson Update:

In last Monday’s MMPP, it was reported that Moose Jaw LW Garrett Robinson was critically injured in an early morning car accident after the club returned from a game in Red Deer. At last report, Robinson remains in a coma in the intensive care unit at Regina General Hospital. The Warriors have set up the Garrett Robinson Recovery Fund to assist the family during this difficult time. For those that would like to send well wishes and prayers to the family, click on the link at the top of the  Warrior’s home page to send an email of support.

Moose Jaw resumed play last weekend in a home / at home series with the Prince Albert Raiders, dropping Friday night’s game 5-3 in Prince Albert and turned around and shut out the Raiders 5-0 on home ice Saturday Night. Warriors G Joey Perricone, who was involved in the accident with Robinson, had 19 saves in the shutout Saturday night, the first game he played in since the accident. Moose Jaw RW Carter Smith, also involved in the accident, has yet to play a game.

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