It was a see-saw battle in Warren last night in the South Eastern Manitoba Hockey League.

When it was over, Portage Islanders had a 5-4 victory in hand.

Warren's Jesse Atonyshyn opened the scoring at 19:54 of the first period.

In the second, the teams traded goals, as the Islanders' Anders Strome got the equalizer 50 seconds in. Clifford Ketchen restored Warren's one goal lead at 9:10, on the power play, but Strome evened things again at 17:45. With three seconds left in the period, Brenden Luschinski gave the Mercs a 3-2 advantage.

The third period belonged to the Islanders, as Eric Delong tied the game at 1:10. Ketchen scored his second for Warren, to square things again, at 9:59. Strome completed his hat trick at 17:12, 37 seconds later, Jamie Mousseau sealed the win.

Besides his three goals, Strome notched 2 assists, as did Delong and Tanner Waldvogel.

Kyle Cop was the winning goalie. Ben Lobb took the loss for Warren.

The Islanders' next action is next Sunday, when they host Winkler. Warren next sees the ice on on Friday, also at home, also versus Winkler.