After last Friday's season opener, the head coach of the Whitby Warriors warned that the expansion Akwesasne Indians would pose a stiff test for his club in their second game of the OLA Junior A regular season Tuesday night at Iroquois Park.

And boy, was he bang on.

The visitors came out strong and bombarded Warriors goaltender Joel Weber, scoring the first two and last three of the first period to hold a 5-1 advantage after 20 minutes.

Although penalty trouble accounted for the first two goals, it was an inexcusable way to start the game for the Warriors, especially on the heels of last Friday's offensive outburst against Peterborough and with Nick Cotter, Kyle O'Brien and Brad Levick returning to the lineup.

Much to McComb's delight though, their lull lasted all of the aforementioned 20 minutes.

The Warriors scored three times on the power play and five times all told to knot the game at 6-6 after two periods before going on a 3-0 scoring run late in the third to register the 9-8 victory.

"Veteran teams and good teams are the ones that go on the last run and make sure that when they get their run they put the other team away," said McComb.

Marc Jackson and Nick Carson each scored twice to lead the Warriors, while singles were added by Christoff Perron, Phil McIlhone, Matt Cockerton, Cotter and O'Brien, whose power play marker with 1:31 remaining stood as the winner.

Alex Henderson had three helpers, while Weber had a pair in his first start in goal.

Through two games, the Warriors have played both their goaltenders, Weber and Jesse Gill, however, McComb dismissed the notion that a controversy is brewing.

"Joel is our guy," he said matter-of-factly when asked why Gill received the start in last week's home opener. "The big thing with Jesse is this is his third year with this club, his third year in Junior A, he was at home for all of training camp. He's progressed tremendously as a goalie and he deserved a shot at starting a home opener. I think it was only fair to him. I won't have a problem starting him any night. But the bottom line is, Joel is still our No. 1."

NOTES: The Warriors are off this weekend, but will return to the floor to host the Mississauga Tomahawks Tuesday night at Iroquois Park at 8 p.m.