Battleford Arena has seen more than its share of Saskatchewan Prairie Hockey League playoff action in the league's five-year history.
But it wasn't until this weekend that the Battleford Beaver Blues were able to finally get home to play the Shellbrook Silvertips in the 2015 playoffs.
Their Saturday night contest was their first home playoff game after their contest scheduled for Feb. 14 was postponed due to winter storm conditions that made highway travel treacherous that day.
It meant the Blues were on the road for two straight games in Shellbrook, but they managed to pull off 5-4 win in game two to tie the series up heading back home.
It was a relatively uneventful first period in game three with the Blues putting much of the pressure on the Silvertips deep in their zone. There were also an abundance of penalties.
Only one goal was scored in the first period. A power play goal from Scott Maunula, with Brent Salzl and Todd Heck assisting midway through the first, gave the Blues the early lead.
The period was also marked by Pete Chandler of the Blues receiving a game misconduct for high sticking.
Shellbrook tied it up early in the second, on a goal by Josh Elliot from Nathanial Martin and John Martin at the 1:39 mark.
But the Blues regained the lead at 5:06 mark as Travis Keller scored with Jordan Keller assisting. Moments later, the Blues struck again as Keller scored again with Maunula assisting to make it 3-1.
At the 7:55 mark the Blues' Maunula got his second from Salzl and Jordan Keller, prompting a Shellbrook timeout and a goaltending change.
The timeout seemed to help because at 9:53 the SilverTips cut the margin to two as Brennan Thomporowski scored, Mitch Wourms assisting.
At 12:41, the Blues' Keegan Sparrow made it 5-2, notching his sixth goal of the playoffs. At 14:20 Brent Salzl scored, assisted by Mitch Migneault, making it 6-2.
Shellbrook's Nathanial Martin, from Brendon Canaday, fired one past Blues netminder Mitch Hawtin to make it 6-3 at 14:52.
With 1:52 left in the second the Blues made it 7-3 on Sparrow's seventh of the playoffs from Jordan Keller, which put a wrap on the scoring in a very active second period.
The onslaught of goals finally slowed down in the third period, but two consecutive penalties to the Blues put the Silvertips on a two-man advantage, resulting in a power play goal from Nathanial Martin from Canaday and Brett Mason at 7:36.
With 8:08 remaining, Roddy Hoffman, from Jerome Boucher, made it 8-4 Blues. Shellbrook scored on the power play from Devon Dicus with about five minutes left, but that would be it, and the Blues won game three going away 8-5.
Game four went ahead Sunday night in Battleford, with the Silvertips' backs clearly to the wall. The first period, though, was tight. The SilverTips had a couple of power play opportunities late in the first period, but came up empty and it remained scoreless through one period.
In the second, a power play goal by Brett Salzl from Jordan Keller and Scott Maunula at 5:29 finally put the Blues on the board, but that was answered quickly at 5:57 as Shellbrook's Nathanial Martin tied it up with their own power play goal, Nick Martin and Devon Dicus assisting.
But Salzl scored again from Maunula and Travis Keller at 8:24 to put the Blues up again, 2-1.
Shellbrook tied it at the 11:49 mark as Jason McComas, from Nick Martin and Brennan Thomporowski, put one past Mitch Hawtin and into the net.
The Silvertips then took the lead on a power play goal by Dicus from Canaday at 13:09, giving them a 3-2 lead heading into period three.
The teams traded goals midway through the period. At 7:33 Shellbrook took the lead as Jason McComas scored, but that was answered quickly by the Blues' Jon Kachur at the other end of the ice to make it 4-3.
With 4:11 left Shellbrook pretty much sealed the game as Brett Mason scored from Canaday and Nathanial Martin to make it 5-3 Silvertips.
An empty-net goal by Nick Martin at 18:30 made it a 6-3 final score in game four, as the series evened up at 2-2. Game five is set for Shellbrook to determine which team moves on to round two.
In other action in SPHL first-round playoffs, defending league champions the Cut Knife Colts moved on to the second round with a 6-3 win Friday at home to Glaslyn North Stars.
Kolton Baptiste had two goals while Myles Baptiste, Brayden Bertoia, Ashton Hewson and Troy Watt had the other Colts goals. Brent Blais, Damian Nordell and Ryan Summerfeld had the Glaslyn goals as they wrap up their season.
The series between the Hafford Hawks and Radisson Wheatkings proved particularly hard-fought. Hafford beat Radisson in Game Three on Friday night 5-2 with Ryan Scheafer scoring twice in the win for the Hawks.
That win gave Hafford a 2-1 lead in the series. Game four was in Radisson Saturday night and it was all Hafford as the Hawks won 6-2 to win the series 3-1. Darren Delainey scored twice and got an assist leading the way for Hafford.
While these other first-round series were going on, the Meota Combines were still resting up after clinching their series with Maymont on Tuesday by a 4-2 final score.
