It was a rough go for a while for Nicholas Champion, but the Maineiacs’ 20-year-old goaltender has found his groove.

Champion, whom the Maineiacs acquired this summer from Rouyn-Noranda, is this week’s Quebec Major Junior Hockey League first star after posting three wins, a 1.33 goals-against average and a .944 save percentage.

“He’s been awesome for us,” Maineiacs’ coach J.F. Houle said after learning about the honor Monday. “He’s been making the key saves at the key times and keeping us in games when we needed it.”

Champion’s week started with a home victory over Chicoutimi on Wednesday, Oct. 13, and finished over the weekend with back-to-back wins on the road in Baie-Comeau.

“He’s earning his time now,” Houle said. “Not to say that (backup goalie Andrey Makarov) hasn’t done well, too. He has, and he’s going to get some time going forward. It’s a long month, we’re on the road a lot, and we’ll need him.”

A big reason Champion is in Lewiston is to help mentor the young Makarov. He embraced the role in training camp, and he’s following through on that mission.

“He’s playing a big role for us, he understands the league and knows how to win,” Houle said.

Helping Champion achieve this measure of success, Houle said, is a better approach to team defense. In the three wins, Champion faced just 71 shots, an average of fewer than 24 per game.

“After last year, we knew that had to be a focus, to play better and allow fewer shots,” Houle said. “As a team, we are doing that much better.

“But we still have a lot to work on, and we can’t get too confident,” Houle continued. “It;s a long month, we have a lot of road games and right now we’re relying a lot on depth. We’re still taking too many penalties and we need to be better with discipline. But we’re getting there. Things just don’t change overnight.”

Get ’em early

The Maineiacs sent out a team newsletter to all of its subscribers Monday urging those who want to attend Wednesday night’s game against Shawinigan to get their tickets in advance.

The team announced last week a special election-season promotion that offers a $1 ticket to any fan who wears a political button or sticker to the game Wednesday, and the Maineiacs also invited area politicians running for office to the game.

The following message accompanied the latest newsletter:

“Due to foreseeable demand for this night we ask that you purchase tickets AHEAD of time as we expect a LARGE crowd for this game! Please stop by the Androscoggin Bank Colisee AS SOON AS POSSIBLE to secure your seats!”