The Soo Kewadin Casino Indians opened the 2004-05 North American Hockey League regular season schedule this weekend with a pair of home dates at the Chi Mukwa Community Recreation Centre against their North Division rivals, the Cleveland Barons.
With a number of new faces in the lineup after sending eight players off of last season's team to NCAA hockey, the Mighigan Soo Indians lineup featured 15 new players.
Many were getting their first taste of Junior A hockey and that inexperience showed, especially in the defensive zone.
On Friday night in their season opener, the Indians managed to open up a 1-0 lead midway through the opening period when veteran Andrew Broughton scored on the power play at 10:22.
The period was fairly uneventful aside from the Broughton goal as neither team could get their offense in gear as the Indians outshot the Barons 6-1. Near the midway point of the second period, the Indians had a chance to go up by two goals but James Pentecost was stopped on a breakaway by Cleveland netminder Chris Carlson.
Just under five minutes later, the Barons pulled even as John Goebel scored a shorthanded marker with teammate Steve Silver in the penalty box.
Less than two minutes later defenceman Nick Biondo gave the Barons the lead as he converted a feed from Pat Schafer to send the game into the third with the Barons holding a 2-1 edge.
In the third period, the Indians had trouble maintaining any pressure on Carlson in the Barons goal. That trouble showed as they could only fire three shots on Carlson in the period.
Jake Coyle sealed the win for the Barons with an empty net goal with 30 seconds left to give the Barons a 3-1 season opening win.
In game two on Saturday, the Indians had a better showing defensively and that was reflected in the fact that they had every chance to beat Cleveland and come out of the weekend with a split.
Derek Punches put the Indians on the board early when he took a pass from Nik Sellers and beat Carlson for an early 1-0 lead.
The Indians added to the lead not long after when Kellen Chamblee finished off a nifty passing play between himself and linemates Drew Satterly and Derek Stabile at 6:23 on the power play.
The two-goal lead didn't last long as Steve Shimek and Jeremy Stocker scored just over two minutes apart to tie the game at 2-2 heading into the first intermission.
Late in the second period, the Indians took the lead again as Matt Buha was able to beat Carlson, who put in a sensational effort on Saturday night. The Buha goal came on one of the Indians 18 shots in the period as the held a 29-10 shot advantage through two periods.
Just past the midway point of the third period, the Barons again got the equalizer as Jacob Cepis tied the game at 3-3 with seven minutes left in regulation.
Late in the period, with the Barons enjoying a man advantage, Indians goaltender Troy Redmann, who also played extremely well on the night, was forced to make three magnificent saves as the Barons pressed for the win.
The saves sent the game into overtime, where Redmann again came up big as he stopped Biondo in the opening minute of the extra frame.
The heroics from Redmann were not enough though as Cepis turned out to be the hero as he converted a feed from Jason Weeks to give the Barons a 4-3 come-from-behind overtime win.
Indians coach Joe Shawhan, who was disappointed with his team's defensive effort on Friday night, was much more pleased with the effort of his troops on Saturday night.
"It was definitely better," Shawhan said. "I give our guys a lot of credit; they gave us a great effort. I was happy with it. We're just very immature and young right now."
With the opening weekend now out of the way, the Indians are setting their sights on the Ice Cube in Ann Arbor, Michigan as they will hit the road next weekend to face the United States Under-17 team of the US National Team Development Program.
Next home action for the Indians will be on October 1 and 2 as they face the Youngstown Phantoms at the Chi Mukwa Community Recreation Centre.