The goals in this highly-entertaining encounter, from which a draw was a fair result, all came in a high-energy first half.
The Stags took a 17th-minute lead through Matthew Hamshaw, before goals from Stuart Drummond and Dave Edwards gave the home the side the lead. Shortly before the break Simon Brown levelled for Mansfield to complete the scoring, although few at Gay Meadow would have forecast at half-time there would no further scoring.
From the outset this looked an intriguing fixture. Shrewsbury fielded four debutants after a busy pre-season for manager Gary Peters, while Mansfield arrived full of confidence after an impressive pre-season that included a notable 4-0 thrashing of Sheffield Wednesday.
Indeed, the first half left nobody disappointed. After the opening exchanges brought little in the way of chances, Mansfield went ahead from their first significant attack with Hamshaw sliding the ball home at the far post after Michael Boulding had crossed from the left.
But they were ahead just six minutes and from a Ben Davies corner, fellow debutant Drummond rose unmarked to nod the hosts' level with a downward header.
Set-pieces continued to pose a threat for the Mansfield defence and it came as no surprise that Shrewsbury went ahead on the half-hour - a half cleared corner was returned into the penalty area where Edwards headed powerfully home from ten yards.
There was, however, no shortage of enterprise in Mansfield's front-play and they hit-back to level two minutes before half-time when the impressive Richie Barker slipped clear of the Shrewsbury defence and crossed for Simon Brown to stab the ball home.
In the second half both sides pressed for a winner and there were some close calls at each end with Shrewsbury goalkeeper Ryan Esson marking his debut with a fine save to deny Stephen Dawson, but neither could find a breakthrough and each seemed satisfied with a point apiece from a busy afternoon.