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For better or worse, Treadwell Arena lit up for the Crimson Bears on both Friday and Saturday nights as they split their opening home series against the Colony Knights.

The Juneau-Douglas High School hockey team (1-1 overall) made the crowd wait just 37 seconds into Friday's opener for the fireworks to begin, as Zane Chapman beat Colony goalie Jason Murak with an unassisted wrist shot from the point.

The Knights (1-1 overall) responded with a banger of their own less than a minute later, as Lance Nazaticky knotted up the score off an assist from Trevor Nickerson.

Colony held the momentum, and the puck, for most of the second period, as Chris Sawyer and then Nickerson found the net in the opening five minutes to push the Knights ahead 3-1.

Juneau-Douglas rallied late in the second, though, as Trevor Held found a streaking Robin Woodby to cut their deficit to a single goal.

The rest of the night was a textbook display of hockey, but unfortunately for the Bears it was of the defensive variety. JDHS fought through a trio of Colony power plays during the third, but were unable to slip another shot past Murak the rest of the way.

Colony squeezed off just one more shot (28) than the Bears (27), with JDHS goalie Matt Noreen stopping 25 of those attempts. Alas, Juneau-Douglas' first season as a member of the Mid Alaskan Conference opened with a 3-2 loss.

The Crimson Bears torched the nets offensively on Saturday night, as the Knights fogged up the penalty box - racking up 28 infractions to Juneau-Douglas' 10 in the contest.

JDHS jumped out to an early lead yet again with 12:43 left in the first as Eric Verrelli picked up the helper from Albert Svensson.

Colony stormed back to even the game just three minutes later when Sawyer found Nazaticky for the short score.

The Crimson Bears closed the scoring in the first, capitalizing on one of the night's many power plays when John Kenyon slapped a shot past Murak with 6:49 left on the board. Jake Eames picked up the assist on the play.

The second period appeared to have both teams braced for another defensive finish, as Noreen stopped all nine shots against him, and Murak knocked down all six on his end to keep the score frozen.

The hard-nosed stalemate continued for the opening nine minutes of the third until Eames and then Nolin Ainsworth scored quick back-to-back goals to push the lead to 4-1. Eames' shot was unassisted, while Chapman provided the helper to Ainsworth.

Trevor Held provided Juneau-Douglas' final goal with a wrist shot to the top corner off a pair of nice passes from Verrelli and Svensson to provide the final margin of 5-1.

Noreen ended the game with 16 saves off 17 Colony attempts. The Bears picked up their five goals on 23 attempts.

JDHS will head to Kenai and Homer next week on a four-game road trip. The Crimson Bears' next home games will be on Nov. 21 and 22 when they host the Su Valley Rams.