Now past the midway point of their 2005-06 campaign, the Shelburne Muskies continue to put a bite on their competition, this past weekend defeating the Royals in Tavistock by a score of 8-6. After a long bus ride on one of the snowiest nights of the season so far, the Fish were a bit slow finding their stride through the opening frame.

Joel VanAlstine would get things started when he opened the scoring just past the 8 minute mark of the first on a setup from Gord Simms.

Tavistock would notch a power play marker minutes later but Eddie O'Toole restored the Muskie lead with 2:18 left in the opening frame assisted by Mike Sikora and James Maunders.

There was a flurry of activity on both the scoreboard and in the penalty box through the second.

Three Tavistock goals offset by another from VanAlstine and Simms combined with an unassisted goal from Chris Greer found the score tied at 4-4.

When a skirmish erupted in the dying seconds of the frame, the referee was forced to send both squads to their dressing rooms with 37 seconds remaining in the period so the officials could sort things out.

When play resumed, Shelburne found themselves with out the services of Luke Downey, Scott Teeter, Greg Patton and VanAlstine who were all ejected from the game.

Tavistock was quick to take advantage of the situation and soon found themselves up by a score of 6-4.

Undaunted, the Muskies dug in and on a pair of goals from Chad Boulton and a lone marker off the stick of Andy Dudun, regained the lead with just over seven minutes to play. A power play in the final two minutes gave Tavistock the chance to tie it up again but a short handed goal by Paul Hartley put the win on ice for Shelburne.

This weekend sees the team with a pair games.

On Saturday night, Durham will be in at the CDRC for the second game this season against Shelburne.

In their last meeting, Durham squeaked out a win over the Fish with a shootout win.

No doubt, Shelburne will be looking to even that score and it promises to be a great hockey game.

On Sunday, it's back on the bus to Drayton for a 2 p.m. Sunday afternoon matinee game.