By the end of the first Ajax had built up a 4-2 lead over visiting Pickering and they added one more unanswered in the second frame. The Panthers came back strongly in the third to narrow the gap to just one but a powerplay marker from veteran Greg Waller put the home team up by two to give them the 6-4 victory. Veteran Jonny Simone scored a pair of powerplay markers for the Attack and Jordan Reed garnered three assists. Andrew Howes had two for the Panthers.

Entertaining game in Ajax tonight, Refs were brutal alot of one sided calls and missed calls, Panthers made it 5-4, after being down 5-2, hopefully the Panthers can add a #1 goalie and they might be alright this year if they do.

the attack got their 2pts so thats a fast start on the season i guess but in this one they didnt have a fast or good start at all. pickering scores right off the bat and causes most in the stands to gasp a little as one of the first shots on stein goes in.

ajax wakes up and scores a pair but pickering is right in there with them until howes melts down. lets call it a small meltdown as he didnt rough up a ref this time. either way he sucks the life out of pickering and ajax grabs a pair. the attack pp looks good again this year misses watters but its still good.

i dont get the shots on pointstreak. it says 20-7 for pickering in the 2nd period but im doubting that number. pickering was flat after the two late attack goals. another pp goal simone and its 5-2.

this was not a goaltending display. the panthers netminder struggled greatly and doesnt look like a junior caliber goaltender. stein had less pp time to defend it seemed but was guilty of early goal syndrom in the 1st and 3rd.

panthers fought back with a pair of quick ones but one was a gift from their opponent between the pipes. howes is sitting in the box again as the boys add another pp goal. late game pickering has a defenceman tossed for chirping after landing a big slash. at the final whistle more rough stuff started after beckett chopped back with an ugly one as well.

game was choppy and ugly. stick work everywhere! i really hope that this new youth movement and cages out there doesnt mean we will be forced to watch slash after slash all season. nothing i hate more than guys swinging their sticks out there. tonight there was plenty from both sides. last season there was a few teams that we expected stickwork from and they were the teams that had most of their players in cages. as i say hopefully this isnt whats to come from most or all teams this season.

good 2pts for the boys. im expecting a different game when we play bowmanville and peterborough.

Not exactly sure what game you were watching, Mark.

Pickering was all over Ajax in the second, prompting Carey Durant to call a timeout with the 4-2 lead and a powerplay to settle Ajax down. 20-7 was accurate. Stein made at least 9 game savers in those 20, including four toe saves on shots labelled for the bottom corner. It was a game Pickering easily could have won if their discipline had been better.

I didn't have a problem with the refereeing tonight. I thought the tone and standards were set early, and enforced to the letter all night long. Typical Ajax-Pickering game, though, with lots of yapping and chippy play back and forth.

If I had a problem with anything, it was my own frustration with my computer, and my inability to fix it, which I struggled to do as the game was going on. I am the type of person who takes even one minor problem personally, so I am glad the mic wasn't on as I cursed my laptop and lack of internet connection in the booth.

I saw the game more along the lines as Sharpie. I didn't see the amount of stick work stated here, Pickering did dominate the 2nd, and Stein made a number of good saves. I've seen worse reffing, they were okay. Too bad about Howes, kid has some nice skills, just not between the ears. Hurt his team big time. Wasn't a particularly pretty game, but hey, first game of the season now under both teams's belt.

In fairness to Howes, I thought he played a decent game aside from his undisciplined moments. He was a factor on the ice most of the game, whether it was scoring twice, or coming close to getting Ajax players to come unglued on more than one occasion, I thought he played a decent game. His penalties hurt the team though.