The Elliot Lake Red Wings came out of their first exhibition game against the Blind River Beavers on Centennial Arena home ice with the visitors skating away with a 6-3 win.
In a closely-played match through 40 minutes, the Red Wings took an early lead in the first period on a goal by Matthew Shulist who took advantage of a defensive zone turnover in the right faceoff cirlcle before scoring his first goal of the night, beating Blind River goaltender Gavin Disano.
The Beavers scored the equalizer just under three minutes later before Cameron Dial put the Red Wings ahead with just under five minutes to go in the opening period when he jumped on a bad clearing pass near the blueline, skated into the slot and picked up his first of the exhibition season.
Blind River tied the game early in the second period before sealing the win in the third with a pair of late goals..
In the final period, the Beavers found the net four times including an empty netter with 95 seconds to go in regulation.
Shulist had the lone goal of the final stanza for the Red Wings, beating Disano glove side on a breakaway after beating a Blind River defender wide on the left wing. The goal came after Blind River scored a pair of goals in the opening eight minutes of the period to take a 4-2 lead.
Mark Savery, Red Wings vice president of operations and general manager said the game was opportunity to test out some new players on a team that will be made up largely of veterans from last year.
“It was a great opportunity to look at some guys that are trying to make the team. It gave a few of our veterans a chance to shake off some rust,” he said. “We had seven regulars out of the lineup and will have six guys leaving for (Ontario Hockey League) OHL camps next week so we will have another good look at some of our prospects on Tuesday (in the second exhibition game between the two)."
The two clubs are set to meet again on Tuesday night in a 7 p.m. puck drop at Centennial Arena.