Ratz Take Season Opener

Stevens: "Gooning it up Won't Work This Year"Ratz Captain Joe Stevens Meets with Reporters after game

L to R Rookies Jack MacNeill, Shane Watson and veteran Carl Chambers

Blacks Harbour, NB - In the battle of Blacks Harbour, give the Bonny River Ratz round one. The Rodents beat the Fundy Kingfishers 4-3 in an exciting shootout victory on Sunday. Mark Johnson snapped a high one on Kingfishers goalie Jamie Harris to seal the deal. Joe Stevens, Greg Justason and Chris Richardson scored the Ratz goals in regulation. Replying for the Kingfishers was Robin Heelis, Aaron MacQuarrie and Chris Hoffman. Hoffman also scored in the shootout while rookie Jack MacNeil scored for the Ratz as well, but Johnson's marker did the Kingfishers in.

Joe Stevens was vocal after the game. He noted, "Walsh has to know that gooning it up won't work this year. This squad is solid and that won't make any difference. They really have to stop triple-teaming Taylor too. They had three guys on him and he just dished it off. What a joke. Did anybody catch Warren's goalie clinic? Whew. Glad I didn't have to shoot at him!"

3rd Star of the Game Kingfishers Chris Hoffman

Matty Walsh was really philosophical the loss. He said, "We tried to get Stevens off his game and managed to get him out of the game which was a plus. We figured going in that if we could keep Taylor under a hat trick, we'd have a chance. It didn't work out but nobody figured Warren would be that hot in the net in his first game."