It took nearly 50 minutes before veteren defenceman Mike Ross solved the puzzle that is Tim Dupuis and tied the game for the Deadpucks off a beautiful feed from his son, Andrew Ross, from behind the net.
Unfortunately, a costly turnover by Kyle Gauvin deep in the Deadpucks zone allowed Matt Tang to start a sequence with Rodney Bisnasty that culminated with a blistering snap shop from sniper Chad Paquette that turned out to be the game winning goal, giving the Ninja Pandas a 1-0 series lead.
In the other matchup, Final Boss narrowly escaped a feroucious comeback by Top Cheese, besting them 9-8 in a high-scoring tilt between the two clubs.
Final Boss forward, Nicole Kelly, saved their evening after she intercepted a sloppy pass by Phil Chun on the penalty kill and tipped it past her blueline that gave teammate Taylor Nixon a clean breakaway who tucked it between the pads of Gary Neath.
Top Cheese seemingly had all the momentum in the final five minutes of the game as the trio of Jon Fitzgerald, Matt Ravdas and Joel Malchiondo helped propel the epic Top Cheese comeback by scoring TWICE in a span of 15 seconds that tied the game 8-8.
Both teams will meet again next week as Final Boss holds a 1-0 series lead.