The Windsor Spitfires built up a lead early on Thursday night, and survived a wild 3rd period at the WFCU Centre, en route to their first win of the season 5-4 over the Sudbury Wolves.
Second year forward Oliver Peer opened the scoring for Windsor just past the five minute mark to give the home side a 1-0 lead.
Just over seven minutes later it was Christopher O'Flaherty burying his first goal of the season to give the Spits a 2-0 lead over the Wolves.
Raising the banners as last year's Western Conference champions and West Division winners clearly fired up the home side, as Windsor outshot Sudbury 21-6 in the opening frame.
Sudbury settled in during the second period, but Matt Onuska was up to the task in keeping them off the board.
Late in the middle frame the Spitfires struck again, this time on the powerplay courtesy of assistant captain Michael Renwick, making it 3-0 heading into the second intermission.
The Wolves came out inspired to start the 3rd period, but again were denied by Onuska.
Later in the period Sudbury opted for the early goalie pull, but it backfired when shortly after Alex Christopoulos scored into the empty net just before the 12 minute mark to increase Windsor's lead to 4-0.
With under five minutes to play the Wolves would spoil Onuska's shutout, with David Goyette making it 4-1.
Sudbury pulled their goalie once more a few minutes later and this time it paid off, as Kocha Delic cut the deficit to 4-2.
Goyette would strike again less than a minute later, making it 4-3 before Peer's second goal of the night into an empty net restored the Spitfires two goal lead at 5-3.
Just when it looked like things were over, with only 15 seconds remaining in the game, Sudbury cut the deficit to 5-4 but that's where the comeback attempt would end.
Final shots in the game were 41-37 in favour of Windsor, which went 1-for-4 on the powerplay while Sudbury finished 0-for-3.
The Spitfires are back in action on Saturday night when they travel to Saginaw to take on the Spirit.