The High River Heat got out on the right foot as they kicked off their Tier III provincial championships Friday afternoon.

After an average 1st quarter, the Heat dispatched the Calgary Axemen 13-3.

Heat Head Coach Larry Makortoff says they'll have to come out harder to start games as the tournament progresses.

"We can't under estimate anybody," he says. "They have a couple of good periods or whatever and that puts us in a tough spot, we got to go thinking that we have to respect everybody here, and try and get the job done."

He says the Heat we able to adapt after that tough start against Calgary to pull away.

"We adjusted a little bit in the 2nd quarter, we got our wheels going, we just slowed the game down a little bit and come out successful."

Makortoff says the Heat will take this win and build off it for their second round match-up Saturday morning.

""Was a good win," he says. "They felt good, there's some things that we didn't do well, we didn't execute our power play as well as we wanted to, so we'll work on that before the game tomorrow and we'll come out alright."

The Heat will face the Lethbridge Barracudas Saturday at 10:30 at the Cargill Field House.