Whitehorse was treated to a hockey game that will be spoken about for awhile in the north last night.

After facing off nine times this season, the Fernie Ghostriders had beaten the Creston Valley Thunder Cats every time, but it seems taking the two teams away from home made all the difference for the Cats.

The Thunder Cats beat the Ghostriders 6-3 after an exciting three periods, that saw Creston get the first goal, and Fernie jump ahead in the second period.

The first goal for Creston came just 19 seconds into the game, when the puck trickled past the crease off the stick of Blake Kirkham, unassisted. Fernie goalie Stephen Wolff was visibly disappointed.

After the first period, Wolff stopped 13 shots, while Creston's Chad Katunar saw nine at his end of the rink.

Fernie's Jesse Niemi got Fernie on the scoreboard at 18:53, and the Ghostriders jumped ahead to a quick 3-1 lead.

The second goal for Fernie was scored on a power play by Scott Anderson, while Creston's Matt Chenard was off the ice for a two minute penalty for holding. Anderson slap-shotted the puck nearly from the blue line, assisted by Niemi and James Werner.

Just minutes later, Fernie got their third and final goal of the night at 10:55 by Zach Fridelk, unassisted.

Creston got back in the game with 9:55 left in the second when Colton Meaden snuck the puck to the right side of Wolff, with a crowd of players in front of the net.

The goal was assisted by Ryan Hewitt and Colton Grolla.

While the puck spent plenty of time in front of Creston's net in the second period, Fernie was unable to get anymore goals as Creston surged ahead.

Creston took advantage of a power play when Werner was called for hooking. The short-handed Wolff surrendered a goal to Blake Kirkham, assisted by Sean Maktaak, to tie up the score 3-3 at 7:48.

Creston got a breakaway goal at 5:13 by Keven Cann, with Fernie's Cody Boekestyn left to defend while the rest of his team tried to catch up. The assist went to Grolla, and Creston broke the tie.

Wolff was heavily tested in the final minutes of the second period when Werner was called for hooking. The goaltender faced shot after shot, and let in one off the stick of Cann, his second of the night assisted by Hewitt.

The second period finished at 5-3 for Creston, with Wolff facing nine shots and Katunar stopping 16.

Fernie nearly got a goal on a power play at 11:03 when the puck rolled slowly out to the left of the net.

The Ghostriders kept the puck in Creston's end for a few minutes passing back and forth waiting for an opportunity.

In the final minutes of the third, Fernie pulled their goalie for an extra hand on the ice, which proved costly as Creston's Cann scored a hat trick empty-net goal with 1:45 left, assisted by Kenny Johnstone and Katunar.

Wolff stopped 10 shots in the third for a total of 29, and Creston's Katunar stopped 10, and 35 overall.

Good goaltending for both teams was key, as both were tested by the other's offence repeatedly.

Creston coach Joe Martin was happy to see his team prove to themselves that they can beat the Eddie Mountain Division's top team.

"Fernie's a great team,” said Martin. "Now they know that they can beat this team.”

The win helped Creston gain two much-needed points, as they had fallen to third in the standings over the weekend. Martin was unsure whether they had jumped back to second place, as he had yet to hear what the other teams in the division had done over the weekend.

Martin called out goalie Katunar and Cann as the stars of the game, with Katunar's 35 stopped shots and Cann's hat trick.

The team's two players from Whitehorse, Lawrence Brennan and Robbie Stuckey also played great, he said.

"Lawrence Brennan had a lot of ice and Robbie Stuckey played a great game for us,” Martin said.

Both the Ghostriders and the Thunder Cats will be touring schools in Whitehorse today before their second game in the Yukon Hockey Challenge., which starts at 7:30 p.m. tonight at Takhini Arena.

"(They're going to) have some fun, play some games and give back to the community,” Martin said.

One of the reasons the two teams are in Whitehorse is to show younger hockey players where they can go once they are out of high school.

"(It) gives them something to strive for,” Martin said.

Martin added that it gives Whitehorse kids a great game of hockey they can actually go to, besides just watching the NHL on TV.