WEST FARGO--Grand Forks Red River senior forward Tony Haley said a first-period goal by the West Fargo Packers five minutes into the game shocked the Roughriders into picking up their pace. Red River bounced back to beat the Packers 5-2 on Friday. The Roughriders (4-0, 3-0) beat the Packers (4-2, 3-1) in the power-play game, and it made the difference. The Roughriders scored their first power-play goal at 9 minutes, 51 seconds in the first period after Packers senior forward Kody Coles was whistled for interference. The Roughriders scored a go-ahead goal at 4 minutes, 7 seconds in the second period. "Power plays have been big," Haley said. "We were able to create some offense, get some shots, and that generated the bench going, and that generated opportunities for other people." Red River head coach Bill Chase said the power plays and penalty kills in the game were crucial. "It was huge, and we stress penalties and power plays and killing them and doing what we need to do," Chase said. "It pays off today when we weren't on our 'A' game there for a while, but West Fargo had a lot to do with that, but without those special teams, we're probably hurting." The Packers responded to Red River's second power-play goal with Brody Sherod's second goal of the night at 7 minutes, 27 seconds in the second period. But the Packers weren't able to capitalize on a five-minute major penalty against Red River's Nicholas Manske late in the second period, nor were they able to produce many shots during an early power play opportunity in the third period. "We gotta shoot the puck," said Packers co-head coach Tim Capouch. "Red River scored three goals. All they did is got it back to their defensemen, and they shot and they got rebounds." Capouch credited his goalie Coleton Espe, despite the score, because he had an impressive performance in net, allowing just two goals that weren't on the power play. The Roughriders came alive in the third period to put the game out of reach with goals from sophomore forward Braden Costello, senior forward Mitch Soderberg and Haley. "I think you need to have confidence, and they just really did," Chase said. "The more we gained that confidence, the better we got."