Calder Neufeld scored twice, including the first regular season goal in Spectra Place, to lead the Estevan Bruins to an 8-4 victory over the Melville Millionaires in their season opener Saturday night.
It was the first game for the new arena and the Bruins managed to fight off the distractions, including a spectacular pre-game ceremony.
"The last two days are not normally the way you would go about preparing for any hockey game, ever," said head coach Keith Cassidy, who earned his first SJHL win. "We had guys down doing public appearances today before the game, we had public appearances yesterday. That doesn't lend itself to having easily distracted junior hockey players focus on a hockey game."
Still, the Bruins opened the scoring less than three minutes in on Neufeld's historic marker and didn't look back, building a 3-2 lead after the first period and extending it to 5-2 after the second.
"It was something else to get that first goal in the new Spectra Place. The crowd was amazing tonight and they really started the game off on a good note," said Neufeld.
Ryan Ostertag, Matt Dochylo, Cole Olson, Chris Daniels, Tanner Froese and Taylor Reich, the latter two scoring their first SJHL goals, had the other tallies for Estevan.
Michael Desjarlais, Roger Tagoona, Ian McNulty and Colin Mospanchuk had the Melville goals.
Derek Tendler stopped 25 of 29 shots for the Bruins; Melville's Alex Sirard turned aside 29 of 37 in a losing cause.
