And though they avoided one in a big way Tuesday night to post a 9-8 victory over the Mississauga Tomahawks, thus earning their first victory of the season, Derks had a good chuckle afterwards when asked to sum up his team's performance.

"I think our defence played a good game (Tuesday), but we made a lot of rookie mistakes which keeps the game exciting," he says, while fighting back a laugh.

Exciting it certainly was, through two periods at least, as the Warriors and Tomahawks combined for 11 goals in the middle stanza, and were tied 8-8 at the conclusion. Mississauga had entered the period with a 4-3 advantage.

Whitby opened the frame with four straight in a span of 3:31 and looked to be in control. But a few of those "rookie mistakes" allowed Mississauga to get back into the game in a hurry with three goals of their own just 1:03 apart, including two in five seconds later in the period.

In between and after those two runs, the teams traded goals.

When the third period hit, it was like an entirely new game as both club's showed a commitment to defence, which allowed a Mark Matthews goal 2:37 into the frame to stand as the decisive tally.

Captain Phil McIlhone, who had four points on the night, was impressed with the composure shown by his team on Tuesday, especially in light of losing a pair of weekend games by a combined 30-14 count.

"I think the first few games we played a few of the older, more experienced teams and we might have been a little intimidated by that," says the Brooklin resident. "We were in the (season opener) in Peterborough the whole game. The next two we let Akwasane slip and Six Nations speaks for itself. (Tonight) we kind of buckled down when we had to. We let up that lead, we've done it before, but we didn't stay in the hole this time."