There was plenty of offense on display Tuesday night at the City Arena when Albert Lea met Mankato West.

Fortunately for the Tigers they had a little more firepower than the Scarlets in an 8-5 win.

Tyler Prihoda, Jordan Prescher-Smerud and Mitchell Sorenson each had two goals apiece as Albert Lea showcased the potency of its offense.

Prihoda put the Tigers (10-3-0) on top 1-0 4 minutes, 11 seconds into the game when he fired a shot from the left circle that found the back of the net.

Although the Tigers grabbed the lead early, it was clear West (7-3-2) wasn’t going to lay down. The Scarlets pounded the Albert Lea cage with 18 shots in the first period.

“They came out at us in first period and they showed us that they came to play,” said Tigers head coach Roy Nystrom. “Then in the second we kind of took it over.”

Albert Lea didn’t take over initially in the second period. The Scarlets and Andrew Bruggeman connected for two goals in the first five minutes to take a 2-1 lead. Bruggeman scored his first goal of the game 9 seconds in the second period. He finished with three goals on the night.

The Tigers came back and scored the next five goals to stake themselves to a 6-2 lead, but just when they thought they could relax the Scarlets stormed back again.

This time it was sophomore Drew Weber in the third period. Weber scored a pair of goals 24 seconds apart to push the game to 6-4.

Albert Lea got a lift from its second line and Mitchell Sorenson as Sorenson got rewarded for his hard play with a goal at 11:52 to make the game 7-4.

“He played very well all weekend and he’s playing very well right now,” Nystrom said.

Bruggeman and West weren’t finished, though. Bruggeman tallied his third goal of the game at 12:31 to draw the game to 7-5.

Sorenson and the Tigers came back with an empty- net goal with 45 seconds to play to put to rest any final comeback from the Scarlets.

The defense for Albert Lea wasn’t nearly as strong as the offense Tuesday night.

The Tigers gave up a number of odd-man rushes in the game as the defensemen were unable to control the blue line.

“So many times you teach your defensemen that if the puck gets through the guy can’t get through coming out of the zone,” Nystrom said. “I don’t know how many times that happened where they had 2-on-1 odd- man rushes on us because our defensemen let the puck get through and the guy get through. It’s just one of those things.”

Both Albert Lea and West had 36 shots on goal.

Albert Lea 8, Mankato West 5

Mankato West 0 2 3 — 5

Albert Lea 1 3 4 — 8

First period— 1. Albert Lea, Tyler Prihoda (Jordan Prescher-Smerud), 4:11. Penalties— Casey Marka, AL (tripping), 1:10; Blake Adams, AL (slashing), 9:02.

Second period— 2. Mankato West, Andrew Bruggeman (Jace Leiferman, Drew Weber), :09. 3. Mankato West, Bruggeman (Leiferman), 4:54. 4. Albert Lea, Marka (Dillon Stolt), 9:58. 5. Albert Lea, Prescher-Smerud (Grant Stadheim, Adams), 10:33. 6. Albert Lea, Prihoda (Stadheim), 11:14 (pp.). Penalties— Andrew Frentz, MW (tripping), 13:47; Stadheim, AL (tripping), 15:14; Nick Jose, MW (tripping), 15:48.

Third period— 7. Albert Lea, Stadheim (Adams, Prihoda), :30 (pp.). 8. Albert Lea, Prescher-Smerud (Stadheim, Prihoda), 5:30. 9. Mankato West, Weber (Matt Campbell, Brock Lloyd), 9:09. 10. Mankato West, Weber (Leiferman, Bruggeman), 9:33. 11. Albert Lea, Mitchell Sorenson (Mike Falk), 11:52. 12. Mankato West, Bruggeman (Josh Christenson, Joe Gustafson), 12:31. 13. Albert Lea, Sorenson (unassisted), 16:15 (empty net). Penalties— Christenson, MW (tripping), 6:25; Sorenson, AL (roughing), 7:14; Taylor Draayer, AL (unsportsmanlike conduct), 16:15.

Shots on Goal: Mankato West 18-8-10 — 36; Albert Lea 8-14-14 — 36

Goalies— Mankato West, Adam Trautman (36 shots, 28 saves); Albert Lea, John Wrolson (36 shots, 31 saves).