After a spectacular pre-game ceremony, the Estevan Bruins produced some fireworks of their own in the first regular season game at Spectra Place on Saturday.
Calder Neufeld scored twice, including the first goal in the new arena, to help the Bruins to an 8-4 victory over the Melville Millionaires.
It took only two minutes and 54 seconds for Neufeld to make history on a power play goal that began with a botched clearing attempt by the Mils.
"I just got my stick on it in mid-air and it went to Dylan Smith. He skated in a little ways and I called for the puck. He picked his head up and put it right on my tape and I just kind of one-touched it into the back of the net," said Neufeld.
And he wasn't done, adding another power play marker less than seven minutes later on a backdoor one-timer. Ryan Ostertag's shot off the iron and past Mils goalie Alex Sirard would make it 3-0 at the 11-minute mark.
But Melville got on the board with two goals in 12 seconds before the period was out, with Michael Desjarlais deflecting a Tyler Bird point shot at 15:24 and Roger Tagoona later being credited for a goal that went in off the stick of Austin Yano.
"What do you do there? That was just a bad play all around," head coach Keith Cassidy said of the Tagoona tally. "The goal before that was just a bad play all-around. (Bruins starter Derek Tendler) made some saves when it was close that kept us ahead."
Estevan got those two goals back in the second, beginning with Matt Dochylo's wrist shot past Sirard's blocker at 5:26.
Cole Olson's rebound goal six minutes later was the third of the evening for the trio of Neufeld, Olson and Smith, with the latter assisting on all three.
But the Mils clawed back once more. Ian McNulty drew them to within a pair at the 44-second mark of the third, burying a centring pass from Lee Christensen, and Colin Mospanchuk scored his first SJHL goal nearly six minutes later on a shot that beat Tendler five-hole.
Chris Daniels restored the Bruins' two-goal cushion with nine minutes left. Tanner Froese and Taylor Reich then scored their first SJHL goals 22 seconds apart.
"I've never been so happy. I finally got it and it felt so good," said Froese, who was playing in his second junior game. "I was a little nervous coming in, but I got some hits out there so that kind of calmed me down."
Cassidy, who earned his first SJHL win, said it felt "fantastic" to open the new building on a positive note.
"(With) the heart and soul that was put into this game from the business side of this, it's nice to see that we could come out as a team and live up to our part of things," he said.
"Regardless of what the score was, the people of Estevan can always say that we opened Spectra Place with a big win over a pretty good rival."
That said, he's not planning on 12 goals being scored when the Bruins visit the Notre Dame Hounds on Saturday or the Yorkton Terriers on Sunday.
"Now, it wasn't a pretty game. I'm sure the fans loved it, high-scoring, lots of goals, lots to cheer about, but on any given night I'd much prefer to win 3-2 or 4-3."
A major challenge for the Bruins in preparing for Saturday's game was trying to block out the distractions of opening a new arena and appearing at community events in the days leading up to it.
"The last two days are not normally the way you would go about preparing for any hockey game, ever," Cassidy acknowledged.
On top of that, the pre-game activities included fireworks as the players skated onto the ice, as well as the presence of the SJHL Bruins' first coach, Gary McKechney, and first manager, Ray Frehlick.
McKechney handed a flaming torch to Bruins forward Michael Hengen and also performed the ceremonial puck drop.
"It could have been really overwhelming for all the kids, and even us veterans, with all the stuff going on, the fireworks and all the stuff we're not used to, but we seemed to keep our composure," said Neufeld.
The Bruins' next home game is Tuesday against the Humboldt Broncos. Game time is 7:30 p.m.
