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Lewiston Maineiacs
LewistonMaineiacs
City: Lewiston, Maine
League: Quebec Major Junior Hockey League
Conference: Telus
Division: Central
Founded: 2003 (2003)–04
Home Arena: Androscoggin Bank Colisée
Colours: Black, blue and orange
              
Head Coach: Flag of Canada Jean-François Houle
General Manager: Flag of Canada Roger Shannon
Franchise history
1969–73: Trois-Rivières Ducs
1973–92: Trois-Rivières Draveurs
1992–98: Sherbrooke Faucons
1998–2003: Sherbrooke Castors
2003–2011: Lewiston Maineiacs


The Lewiston Maineiacs were a junior ice hockey team of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League based in Lewiston, Maine. The team played its home games at the Androscoggin Bank Colisée. They were the only QMJHL team in the United States during their whole stay in Lewiston. They won the President's Cup in 2007.

History[]

Their franchise was granted for the 1969–70 season. They played in Trois-Rivières, Quebec from 1969 to 1992. They were known as the Ducs from 1969–1973, and as the Draveurs (1973–1992). They moved to Sherbrooke, Quebec in 1992 to become the Faucons (1992–1998) and the Castors (1998–2003). The Castors moved to Lewiston, Maine in 2003.

The Maineiacs clinched the Jean Rougeau Trophy for first overall in the regular season for 2006–07. During the same season, Lewiston increased its annual attendance totals to 94,903 tickets sold. [1] In the playoffs that year, Lewiston went 16-1 to cruise to their first President's Cup.

2007 Memorial Cup[]

After winning the 2007 President's Cup, the Maineiacs won eligibility to play in the 2007 Memorial Cup in Vancouver, British Columbia. Following an opening win over the Medicine Hat Tigers, the Maineiacs suffered the huge loss with the injury of their captain, Marc-André Cliche, and never really found their scoring touch. They crashed out of the tournament in fourth place after losing consecutive games to the Vancouver Giants, Plymouth Whalers, and the Whalers again in the tie-breaker, scoring only three goals in three games in the process.

Scores

Sale and Relocation[]

On January 25, 2009, it was announced that the Maineiacs were negotiating with the city of Boisbriand, Quebec (a suburb of Montreal) in hopes of relocating the franchise for the 2009–10 season. Under the plan, Mark Just would remain majority owner with 51% of the shares, with former NHL defenseman Joel Bouchard owning the rest. On January 31, the team announced that they had filed their intent to relocate, and had submitted papers to do so to the QMJHL.

In a Jan. 31 media release announcing the move of the Maineiacs franchise, owner Mark Just said that community support for the team was a major consideration. During the six seasons since the team moved from Sherbrooke, Quebec to Lewiston, the Maineiacs never managed to break even. However, on February 2, Farrel Miller, owner of the QMJHL's Montreal Junior Hockey Club, issued a statement that his team would fight the Maineiacs move to Boisbriand on territorial grounds.

The Montreal Junior Hockey Club has communicated to the QMJHL that it will retain, without modification, its exclusive geographic territory that it acquired in connection with its 2008 Franchise Agreement with the QMJHL. On January 21st, 2009, the Montreal Junior Hockey Club communicated to the Governors of the QMJHL that (i) it has chosen to retain its exclusive territory without modification and (ii) that it is not seeking any financial compensation in connection with this issue.

After several weeks of negotiations with a number of Canadian cities (most notably Fredericton, New Brunswick), Maineiacs Head Coach Don Macadam announced on March 24, 2009 that the Maineiacs would be remaining in Lewiston.  In June 2010, Lewiston businessman Paul Spellman became the minority owner of the team, and early in August 2010, former Moncton Wildcats General Manager Bill Schurman was named as teh team's Sports Management Consultant.  However relocation rumours continued to follow the team, with Summerside, PEI (where Schurman, a native of that town, had recently been the municipality's Director of Community Services) and St. John's, Newfoundland & Labrador name as potential destinations in January 2011.

Schurman's denials of the team looking into a Summerside relocation proved unconvincing, and the rumours had a negative impact on attendance.  However, Schurman's dream of moving the MAINEiacs to his home city ultimately failed, as a preliminary exploration to gauge support for a move to Summerside found little traction. The team then began to look at other possibilities, but found that few other relocation options existed.

The Lewiston franchise was disbanded by the QMJHL in the summer of 2011. To replace the defunct MAINEiacs club, the Sherbrooke Phoenix  began play for the 2012-13 QMJHL Season. It is the 3rd franchise to call Sherbrooke home in the last 25 years.

League Takeover and Disbanding[]

On May 31, 2011, the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League held a conference call to prepare an offer to purchase the team from Mark Just for 3.5 million dollars. Under the league's plan, the MAINEiacs would then be disbanded, with players being selected by other clubs in a dispersal draft. Late on May 31, the league issued a press release confirming the sale of the MAINEiacs to the league, and the subsequent disbanding / dispersal draft occurred the following week. While Androscoggin Bank Colisee owners had stated that they are searching for a replacement team from outside of the QMJHL to take the MAINEiacs place.  The Portland Pirates of the American Hockey League moved into the Androscoggin Bank Colisee after a lawsuit and breakdown in the discussions of their lease with the Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland.

Coaches[]

  • Mario Durocher: 2003–04
  • Clément Jodoin: 2004–2007
  • Ed Harding: 2007–January 12, 2009
  • Don MacAdam: January 13, 2009–May 31, 2011

Players[]

QMJHL award winners[]

All-stars[]

Captains[]

  • 2003–04: Francis Trudel
  • 2004–05: No captain
  • 2005– January, 2006: Brandon Roach
  • January, 2006–May 2007: Marc-André Cliche
  • September 2007–March, 2008: Marc-André Daneau
  • September 2008–June, 2009: Danick Paquette
  • September 2009-May 2010: Billy Lacasse
  • September 2010-May 2011: Cameron Critchlow

NHL alumni[]

Eight Maineiacs to have played in the NHL:

NHL draftees[]

In addition, the Maineiacs have had several players drafted by National Hockey League teams. They are:

2004 NHL Draft
2005 NHL Draft
2006 NHL Draft
2007 NHL Draft
2008 NHL Draft
2009 NHL Draft
2010 NHL Draft

Yearly results[]

Regular season[]

Legend: OTL = Overtime loss, SL = Shootout loss

Season Games Won Lost Tied OTL SL Points Pct % Goals
For
Goals
Against
Standing
2003–04 70 33 31 5 1 - 72 0.507 233 215 3rd in East
2004–05 70 32 30 8 0 - 72 0.514 214 209 4th in East
2005–06 70 36 23 - 3 8 83 0.581 240 207 4th in East
2006–07 70 50 14 - 2 4 106 0.714 282 196 1st in East
2007–08 70 37 26 - 0 5 81 0.579 222 212 5th in East
2008–09 68 22 43 - 1 2 47 0.324 190 286 Last in Central
2009–10 68 26 42 - 0 0 47 0.382 212 298 4th in Central
2010–11 68 40 24 - 1 3 84 0.609 265 223 2nd in Telus East

Playoffs[]

Team records[]

Team records for a single season
Statistic Total Season
Most points 106 2006–07
Most wins 50 2006–07
Most goals for 282 2006–07
Least goals for 190 2008–09
Least goals against 196 2006–07
Most goals against 298 2009–10
Individual player records for a single season
Statistic Player Total Season
Most goals Etienne Brodeur 53 2010–11
Most assists Mathieu Aubin 56 2005–06
Most points Mathieu Aubin 103 2005–06
Most points, rookie David Perron 83 2006–07
Most points, defenseman Jonathan Paiement and Chad Denny 65 2003–04; 2006–07
Best GAA (goalie) Jonathan Bernier 2.58 2006–07
Goalies = minimum 1500 minutes played


Individual player records—career
Statistic Player Total Season
Most goals Stefano Giliati and Mathieu Aubin 85
Most assists Jonathan Paiement 136 2004–06
Most points Stefano Giliati 193 2006–08
Most penalty minutes Danick Paquette 555 2006–2009
Most games played Marc-André Daneau 265 2005–08


External links[]

This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Lewiston MAINEiacs. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Ice Hockey Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 3.0 (Unported) (CC-BY-SA).


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