Lewiston MAINEiacs @ Halifax Mooseheads
Friday, September 28 & Saturday September 29, 2007
Halifax Metro Centre
Season Five - Games Six and Seven

Game Time: 6:00 PM ET both nights

Media: ESPN 1470 AM in Lewiston/Auburn; ESPN 870 AM in Portland;
Audio Stream; Webcast on TELUS

MAINEiacs visit Moose for pair

The Lewiston MAINEiacs look to turn their 4 game skid around this weekend against the Halifax Mooseheads. The Mooseheads enter the 2007-08 campaign with many key players returning to the line up from last season’s club that fell to the MAINEiacs in five games of the second round of the QMJHL Presidents Cup playoffs. Revenge of last post seasons dismissal will likely be on the minds of Halifax as they take to the ice tonight.

 Quick Stats

Lewiston MAINEiacs
Record: 1-4
Streak: Lost 4
Power Play: 17.6% (6 of 34) 6th
Penalty Kill: 76.5% (28 of 34) 16th

Players to watch:

47-RW- Danick Hudon-Paquette (3-2-5)
22-LW- Chris Tutalo (1-4-5)
48-D- Patrick Cusack (1-2-3)
19-RW- Marc-Andre Daneau (1-1-2)
30-G- Peter Delmas (1-4; 3.73 GAA; 0.894 SAV%)

Roster News:

Lewiston is without G Jonathan Bernier (LA Kings); RW David Perron (St. Louis) and LW Stefano Giliati (Albany-AHL) who are away at pro camps. Bernier appears to be starting the season with the Kings, who open up the 2007-08 NHL regular season Saturday against Anaheim across the pond in London.

Halifax Mooseheads
Record: 3-1
Streak: Won 1
Power Play: 21.4% (6 of 28) 5th
Penalty Kill: 85.7% (23 of 27) 7th

Players to Watch:

17-LW- Ryan Hillier (4-3-7)
19-C- Peter-James Corsi (2-5-7)
16-RW- Bryce Swan (2-2-4)
35-G- Pier-Olivier Pelletier (0-1; 3.05 GAA; 0.875 SAV%)

Roster News:

Halifax heads into the weekend without RW Jakub Voracek who is battling against former Voltigeur C Derrick Brassard and former Vancouver Giant Gilbert Brule for the final spot on the Columbus Blue Jackets roster. G Pier-Olivier Pelletier was acquired in a deal with Drummondville last week that sent RW Garrett Peters to the Volts. Faced with too many goaltenders, G Roger Kennedy was placed on waivers Monday and picked up by the Shawinigan Cataractes. The Mooseheads will aslo be without LW Logan MacMillan (concussion)

Harding’s Corner

Upon returning from the loss in Saint John in the wee hours of Monday morning, the MAINEiacs embarked from the bus and hit the ice for some work. After three lopsided losses in a row, MAINEiacs GM & Head Coach Ed Harding points to team intelligence as being the main weakness. Harding also cleared up what happened at the early morning skate.

“Our guys are playing hard, I don’t have a problem with that,” Harding stressed. “The problem was we’re not playing smart, so it wasn’t a ‘no-puck’ practice. We had pucks out there and we worked on two drills, went one solid hour, worked on some things that we really needed to address, which is turning the puck over and not being more protective of it.”

The MAINEiacs’ hockey operations boss remains confident in the line up he has. Despite missing three key players, Harding thinks that although the current record sits at 1-4, the team could be better than the win-loss column indicates.

“We’ve played three teams now. Five games, three different teams, and we could have beat those teams anytime,” he said.

MAINEiacs Education Foundation Golf Tournament ‘Biggest Field Yet’

This past Monday, a total of 120 people participated in the 4th annual event at Martindale Country Club in Auburn. The event raised close to $14,000 for the Foundation, it’s largest one-day fundraiser of the year. Special thanks to title sponsor Federal Distributors and presenting sponsors Agren Appliance and Time Warner Cable for their support of this important event.

MAINEiacs Radio News

This week, the MAINEiacs said good-bye to play-by-play announcer Nikolai Busco, who has taken a Director of Communcations role with the Memphis River Kings of the Central Hockey League. Busco will be calling out the name of former MAINEiac fan fave Sheldon Wenzel for the coming season, and we wish Nikolai the best of luck.

The MAINEiacs will welcome Alex Reed behind the mic as play-by-play announcer. A native of Virginia Beach, Reed is a graduate of Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia and has won numerous awards in sports broadcasting.

Lord Stanley Comes to Lewiston

Saturday, October 6th at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee in Lewiston, the Stanley Cup will make an appearance for one hour from 9 - 10 AM. Fans are invited to come and look at hockey’s most famous trophy and take pictures with it, free of charge. Maine Governor John Baldacci will be in attendance for the event.

The cup will move to L.L. Bean in Freeport at 11 AM for an hour before heading to Portland for a short viewing at the Museum of Art and then to the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital at Maine Medical Center prior to the Portland Pirates home opener later that evening.

Today In MAINEiacs History

September 28, 2003, Lewiston battled the Quebec Remparts to a 2-2 tie in front of 1562 at the former Central Maine Civic Center (now Androscoggin Bank Colisee). The game featured 70 minutes in penalties combined, with a bout between Lewiston’s Sheldon Wenzel and Quebec’s Tyler Chambers just four seconds into game to set the tone for the night. Lewiston launched a barrage of shots on Remparts goalie Jean-Michel Filiatrault, outshooting Quebec 46-23, yet scrambled for a goal by Alexandre Picard late in the third period to force the game into overtime. Despite the penalty filled contest, both teams combined for 0-19 on the man advantage.

September 28, 2004, the MAINEiacs travelled to Centre 200 for an early season date with the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles. Lewiston would give up an early power play goal in the first period, but then torched Eagles goaltender Martin Houle for four straight scores in the next 9:30. Alex Bourret had two goals and three assists on the night, Jonathan Paiement had three assists and Bobby Gates had a pair of goals in the MAINEiacs 6-4 win.

Got any alumni news? Pass it along! offthepost@lewistonhockey.com