The puck dropped this weekend on another year of Saskatchewan Prairie Hockey League senior hockey throughout the northwest region.
The campaign got underway with two games, one of which was at Battleford Arena Saturday night between the Battleford Beaver Blues and their Highway 16 rivals the Maymont Settlers.
It did not take long for a flurry of goals to open the season in what turned into a rough, high-scoring game.
The Blues got the first goal of the game at the 4:01 mark of the first period, as Mike George scored from Ryleigh Campbell and Mike Nelson.
Soon after, at the 5:11 mark, Maymont tied it up on a goal by Chad Tichkowsky, assisted by Scott Lange.
The Blues then regained the lead at the 6:30 mark as Cody Danberg scored from Nelson and George on the power play.
With 8:34 left in the period a long shot by Tyler Wasmuth beat Spencer Laycock, with Lee Gaetz the lone assist to make it 3-1 Blues.
With 5:53 remaining the Blues fired home a fourth goal from Brent Salzl, assisted by Keegan Sparrow and Kevin Bendall, and then a fight immediately broke out in front of the net involving several players.
It was Wade Wakelin, Nick Strain and Chad Bernier who went to the box for Maymont, and Salzl, Sparrow and Kelsey Sproule to the box for Battleford, with all players serving roughing minors.
Just seconds after those penalties expired, Battleford added their fifth goal as Wasmuth scored his second of the night unassisted. They then made it 6-1 when Mike George scored with 1:13 remaining in the frame. That would be all the scoring through one period.
In the second, Maymont cut the margin to 7-2 on a goal by Kyle Litchenwald from Wakelin and Layken Heidt.
After Battleford scored again to make it 8-2, on a hat trick goal by Wasmuth, another fight erupted behind the Maymont net. George, Campbell, Wakelin and Litchenwald ended up being shown the box for roughing after the whistle. Litchenwald also got two minutes for cross checking.
Wasmuth would add his fourth of the night, with Dillon Friesen assisting, not long afterwards.
The Blues made it 10-2 with 7:07 left in the second when Danberg scored with Nelson and Jon Kachur assisting. That would be all the scoring through two periods.
In the third period, goals by Jackson Soanes of the Blues, by Davin Tran, Layken Heidt and Cody Janzen of the Settlers, a power play marker by the Blues' Nelson, and one last Maymont goal by Chad Bernier wrapped up a 12-6 win by the Beaver Blues.
The other action in the SPHL took place Friday night, between the Spiritwood Timberwolves and the Edam Three Stars.
In that contest the visiting Edam team won easily by a 7-0 final score.
Action resumes Friday night with the Glaslyn North Stars hosting Maymont, the Cut Knife Colts hosting Edam, the Spiritwood Timberwolves hosting the Hafford Hawks, and the Meota Combines are on the road to face the Shellbrook Silvertips.
Battleford is back in action again Saturday in Spiritwood while Cut Knife hosts the Radisson Wheatkings in the first game of the season for Radisson.
