Rockland Rink was full to bursting with fans for the Whitman-Hanson boys hockey Opening Day on Saturday night, and the Panthers gave the fans their money’s worth.

Chris Ryan broke a 3-3 tie with 10 seconds to play in the second period, and that turned out to be the difference as the Panthers started out 1-0 with a 4-3 win over the Quincy Presidents.

Ryan’s goal capped a wild second period in which the Panthers scored twice in the first four minutes only the have the Presidents answer with two of their own less than a minute apart on two breakdowns by the Whitman-Hanson defense. The Presidents looked to be taking control of the game when Ryan got his stick on the rebound from an AJ Glynn slapshot and put it past Quincy goalie Justin Keenan to send the Panthers into the locker room with the lead.

“It was a big goal, no doubt about it,” head coach Rich Manning said. “Quincy had a lot of momentum [at that point]. We got the two-goal lead and looked like we might explode, but give them credit, they fought hard and came back in. To score a goal inside a minute in any period just gives you great momentum. If there was any doubt in our minds going into the third, that goal eased it a little bit.”

The Panthers had to kill two penalties in the third period, but held the Presidents to just five shots to hold on for their first win of the season.

“It was a great night for our program, and better that we were able to get the win,” Manning said. “It got dicey, and we’ve got a lot of new bodies in there. We made a few mistakes, and their goalie definitely kept them in the game in the first period, but we were able to hang on.”

The Panthers dominated most of the first period, sending 15 shots at Keenan, but were not able to break through until defenseman Alec Sicuranza sent a slap shot on net from the blue line that ticked off Keenan’s glove and into the net.

Quincy caught a break of their own to tie the game with 1:59 left in the first period, when Peter Giunta’s shot deflected off a body in front of the net and over the shoulder of Panther goalie Mike Bonavita. The Panthers answered quickly in the second period when Cam McDonald wristed a shot past Keenan two minutes and 15 seconds after play resumed. Less than two minutes later, the Panthers took advantage of a power play to pad their lead with a goal by Glynn.

The Panthers’ inexperience came back to bite them and they got too aggressive following Glynn’s goal, and the Presidents caught them with the defensemen too deep inside the Quincy blue line, which allowed Pat Freeman to break in alone on Bonavita to cut the lead to one. One minute later, a sloppy clearing attempt by the Panthers resulted in a turnover in front of their net, when Matt Davis beat Bonavita point blank to tie the game.

That would be all Bonavita would allow the rest of the way in an 18-save effort for the Panther sophomore.

Bonavita was the backup goalie for Tom Leonard as a freshman last season, but like many of the Panthers, is getting his first significant ice time this year. Several other returning Panthers are also playing new positions this year, and Manning said he was happy with how the team handled themselves in their first game.

“I’m just proud of everybody’s effort,” he said. “There were a lot of bodies out there making their varsity debut, and that can be intimidating at first. For them to go out there and compete hard and get us a win is huge. It was a team win.”

The Panthers have a tough week ahead of them as they will travel to the Hobomock Ice Arena in Pembroke on Saturday to face the defending league champion Scituate Sailors before returning to Rockland Rink Wednesday to host the South Sectional champion Pembroke Titans.