Huskies win game 1 of pre-season

The Huskies opened their exhibition season with a wild win over Dawson Creek on Friday night.

Tyson Pederson opened the scoring two and a half minutes into the game – and it was certainly a sign of things to come. At the end of the first period, the Jr. Canucks were up 2-1, courtesy of two Jason Higson markers.

The second period saw plenty more fireworks, with the Huskies scoring 5 goals in the first ten minutes of the period, followed by a single DC goal, to make it 6-3 Fort St. John after 40 minutes.

And in the third period, the fun really began. The third saw two goals for each team, two seperate fights, and a handful of players from each team send off the ice late, apparently for staying on the ice during one of the fights.
When the dust finally settled, it was 8-5 FSJ.

More importantly though, was getting that first game under the garter belts of each team’s rookies. 10 of the Huskies’ 20 dressed players were playing in Husky colors for the first time, while Dawson Creek had at least that many freshmen. As you would expect from players still competing for spots on their teams, there were plenty of big hits, and big misses. Riley Apsassin and Cash Brinkworth both scored nice goals in their debuts, while Dylan McPherson looked solid in the Fort St. John net, playing the first half of the game before making way for Andrew Van der Merwe.

Cody Kalb and Luke MacInerney led the way for Fort St. John with two goals each, with the others coming from Tyson Pederson, Riley Apsassin, Cash Brinkworth, and Dan Pappin. Jason Higson scored two goals for DC, with the others coming from Jesse Atkinson, Tyson Keen, and Justin McLeod.

The teams will face each other again tomorrow night in Dawson Creek.
The Jr. Canucks will visit the North Peace Arena on Sept. 26, for the opening game of the regular season.