After not playing a regular season game for nearly three weeks, the Michigan Soo Indians were back into action this weekend with the Springfield Jr. Blues in North American Hockey League play.
With three weeks off, the Indians saw their lead atop the North Division vanish as the Jr. Blues went on a tear winning eight straight games and moving into top spot, two points ahead of the Indians.
The two teams have built a heated rivalry this season and Friday night's game was no exception.
Prior to the game Jr. Blues head coach and General Manager Nick Pollos sent in a tape to the NAHL office to review a hit thrown by Soo Indian Drew Satterly in a game between the two clubs back in October.
The hit in question could have gotten Satterly a five game suspension but Satterly dressed in Friday night's series opener and didn't waste any time getting involved.
Satterly fought Jr. Blues forward Jake Hanson 10 seconds into the opening period. Both players left the game after the fight, Hanson with a chipped tooth and Satterly with swelling around his eye. The injuries also caused both to miss Saturday night's contest.
In Friday's contest, R.G. Flath was the offensive star for the Indians scoring twice in a 3-1 victory. Logan Bittle also scored for the Indians in the win while Alex Semenov scored the lone goal for Springfield.
Derek MacIntyre was strong in goal for the Indians stopping 24 shots en route to the win while Ian Harper stopped 32 shots in the loss.
The win on Friday also put the Indians in a position to take over top spot in the division with a victory on Saturday, which is exactly what they got.
After an extremely gritty effort on Friday night, both teams toned it down a bit for the finale.
The Indians took the lead in the opening period despite being outshot 8-6 as Mark Lutz scored at 15:04 and Stavros Paskaris scored on the power play at 19:00 to give the Indians a 2-0 advantage.
In the second period, Colin Kingston goal got the Jr. Blues back to within one goal with a shorthanded effort at 13:37 before Bittle scored to restore the Indians two goal advantage.
The Jr. Blues made the game interesting in the third period. After Bittle scored his second of the night to make it a 4-1 score in favour of the Indians, the Blues battled back to within one as Kingston and Pat Lee scored less than a minute apart to make the score 4-3.
But Bittle scored his third goal of the night to put the game away with 15 second left on the clock.
Following Saturday night's game, Indians coach Joe Shawhan said he was pleased with the series, especially being able to take two games from one of the NAHL's other top clubs.
"They were in first by two points coming into this weekend," Shawhan said. "But we had those five early shootout losses where in a lot of them, we were leading late and teams managed to get us into overtime and shootouts where we didn't have much luck."
"I though (Springfield) played with a lot of emotion," Shawhan went on to say. "The chemistry on our team is strong too."
Shawhan was also pleased with the play of Bittle as well as his goaltender MacIntyre.
"(Bittle's) a great player," Shawhan said of his leading scorer. "I was given the choice of a couple of players for the Viking Cup team and I chose him. He does all the little things well. He's a great locker room guy too, the other guys really like him."
"(MacIntyre's) on the NHL Central Scouting list. He's really steady. We came back with him tonight after a strong effort (Friday) night," Shawhan said of MacIntyre, who stopped 17 shots on Saturday night in the win. "I think tonight was the first time he's given up three goals all year."
The Indians now look ahead to next weekend as they take on the Toledo Ice Diggers at home on Friday and Saturday nights.