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It was a throw back to yester-year Junior C style tonight as the Lakeshore Canadiens shutout the Petrolia Flyers 6-0 in the first ever PJHL Stobbs Outdoor Hockey game dubbed the Outdoor Shinny Series.

The weekend long event is taking place at Windsor’s Lanspeary Park in the Lions Outdoor rink and tonight’s game turned out to be an outstanding opener to kick off the weekend

  “We knew going into this that there would be a learning curve and the last couple of days were a test to say the least,” admits Stobbs Convenor Mark Hagerman.

 “That being said, the first Outdoor Series game tonight was a success in my book.”

Hagerman, who coordinated the event along with other participating League Managers including Lakeshore GM Mark Seguin, are hoping to make it an annual event that will attract a larger following and grow into an even bigger event next season.

A larger than expected crowd of over 300 fans brought their warm clothing, blankets and hot chocolate and enjoyed the game adding to the already exciting air that filled the outdoor covered rink as the game went off without a hitch.

“The last couple of days were stressful for Mark [Seguin] and myself, but I’m sure he’ll agree that we were harder in ourselves than we needed to be. The atmosphere was perfect. The outdoor game adds a whole new element to the game and I’m glad that I could be small part of it. I’m just as excited for tomorrows games as well.”

The score of the game did not represent the play of Petrolia who played well enough to manage to skate toe-to-toe with Lakeshore through a scoreless first period.

The Habs, who consistently doubled up the shots on goal through all three periods outshooting the Flyers 37-23. The Lakeshore scoring chances would eventually open it up on the Flyers seven minutes into the second period as Lakeshore’s Nathan Skully would light the lamp giving the Habs a 1-0 lead. Blaine Blake then scored the only powerplay goal of game at 12:27 later in the period, just before Dylan Chittle found the back of the net a minute later, with Matt Smith capping off the Lakeshore second period scoring barrage late at 19:08 as both teams retired to the dressing room after two frames with Lakeshore leading 4-0.

Petrolia played their best hockey offensively to meet the third bell, but couldn’t score on Habs goaltender Erik Morneau who would eventually pick up the shut out.

Andrew Thomas scored the fifth and final goal of the game midway through the third for Lakeshore with Smith picking up his second point on the night.

The Canadiens now it firmly in third place in the Stobbs Division with an even 50 points just four points behind second place Dresden with two games in hand.