It's playoff time again for the MacGregor Wild in the Tiger Hills Hockey League. The Wild started a best-of-five series last night at home against the Pilot Mound Pilots.

The Wild and Pilots split the regular season series this year, with both teams winning at home, but it was the road team who picked up the 8-6 win in game 1 on Wednesday night in MacGregor.

Pilot Mound took the lead early, scoring just 11 seconds into the game. The rest of the first period was a physical affair chalked full of scoring chances. MacGregor was able to tie the game at 1 with less than a minute remaining in the first frame and looked to take momentum into the intermission, but with less than 15 seconds remaining in the first, the Pilots scored their second of the night to take back a 1 goal lead after the first.

Both teams came out hitting in the second period. Pilot Mound would score early in the frame to take a 2 goal lead with lots of time remaining. Shortly after, MacGregor would take a 4-minute penalty, but scored a quick shorthanded goal to bring the game within 1. The rest of the powerplay was a different story, as Pilot Mound scored 2 goals before the end of the penalty to take a 5-2 lead. The Pilots would add another to make the score 6-2 about halfway through the second. Despite being down 4 goals, the Wild didn't back down and were able to gain some momentum and score twice before the end of the period to make it a two goal game heading into the third.

The final period of game 1 followed the trend of the first two periods as both teams continued to throw hit after hit in the pysical affair. MacGregor came out flying and scored just 1:30 into the third to bring it back to a one goal game. Pilot Mound would kill the Wild's momentum just 53 seconds later with a goal to make it a 7-5 game. The rest of the period was back and forth until the final five minutes when MacGregor was able to hold hold the Pilots in their own end, and with 2:49 remaining, the Wild scored to bring the game back within one goal. Unfortunately, that's as close as the Wild would get, when Pilot Mound scored a late goal into the empty net to take game one 8-6.

Both teams will get just one day off before game 2, which will take place in Pilot Mound on Friday night. Game 3 is back in MacGregor on Saturday night, and game 4 will be in Pilot Mound on Sunday night if needed.