The first week of the season for the Maine Timber was quite spectacular to say at least, and I will be taking a look at each of the games to see how they started the season with four wins. As reigning champions it is never easy to get a start according to expectations but I think the Timber have shown that they are not joking around and are gunning for the repeat by making a statement.

Day 1: Vancouver Whalers @ Maine Timber
The home season opener vs Vancouver started off quite well with a Power Play Goal by Rookie Jean-Jacques François Jacques-Jean, assisted by his Rookie Linemate Lavoie after 14 minutes. That was only a small showing of whats to come in the full game because even though Vancouver equalized only 30 seconds later, the Timber came back and scored to more the minute after that. While the dominance would come later, Maine went into the intermission with a 3-2 lead. From then on it was mainly the Timber in the game with scoring 8 unanswered goals over the next two periods with Vancouver only getting one more in the last minute for a spectacular season opener result of 11-3 and quite the statement. Even though Celly finished with a SV% of .500 by letting in 3 goals on 6 total shots it started the season the right way.

Day 2: Maine @ Regina
After this win it would have been easy to sit back and relax in the first road game of the season against the Regina Elks up north, but Maine continued to push even after getting scored on in the first minute of the game on a breakaway by Skalbergs. Maine then scored 3 unanswered goals and the rookie goalie McStopper shined in his first game with a .960 SV% and overall it ended up being an important second win of the season - first on the road.

Day 3: Maine @ Carolina
The third game was quite the nailbiter for both teams involved. Second road game in a row for Maine it was on the road again this time against the (then) unbeated Carolina Kraken. After 3 periods of hockey where the veterans shined for Maine it was a 3-3 tied game and quite even with 43-44 shots after overtime. So the game went to a shootout and Maine was able to grab their first SO win of the season and a 3-0-0 total record.

Day 4: Anchorage @ Maine
For day four the Timber returned home to host the Anchorage Armada who at that point had one game less but was 2-0-0 with wins over St. Louis and a high score win against Yukan in their season opener. It was the first road game for them and it ended up showing. A hyper-dominant first period ended with Rookie Mia Lavoie scoring 2 goals and Kuznatsov rounding it out for a 3-0 lead. A comfortable lead like this usually leads to a quite defensive second period, but Anchorage only put one shot on goal against Maines 8 so there was no slowing down in sight. The third period had Anchorage score their single goal of the game when Reed scored 13 minutes into the game but in the end it was too late and King II scored an empty netter with 3 seconds to go to close out the game 4-1.

All in all it was a great start to the season for Maine Timber and the hope for sure is to take that energy into the rest of the season.