The Battlefords North Stars (23-16-6-1) had a trio of lacklustre efforts coming into Saturday's game against the La Ronge Ice Wolves (15-23-3-4), but managed to bounce back and pick up a 4-2 win.
Friday, the North Stars welcomed the Melville Millionaires (22-20-2-2) coming off back-to-back performances in which their goaltenders didn't last longer than one period of play before getting pulled.
Friday was no different.
After Michael Statchuk gave the North Stars the lead by scoring on a long wrist-shot from the point on the power play, the Millionaires scored two goals nine seconds apart in the final 30 seconds of the period to take a 2-1 lead into the intermission.
Spencer Tremblay was pulled after the second goal, a slap shot from the top of the right circle which deflected off his glove and into the net.
Igor Leonenko tied the game just over four minutes into the second when his shot from the slot somehow snuck through Josh Bykowski.
Exactly 50 seconds later however, it was the Millionaires scoring on a shot that should have been stopped.
Lane Harbor's shot from the slot appeared to hit Ryan Rewerts in the chest before bouncing off him and into the net to restore the Millionaires one-goal lead.
Greyson Reitmeier extended Melville's lead four minutes later, and the North Stars were unable to solve Bykowski again, eventually dropping a 5-2 game.
Saturday the North Stars were looking for a win before heading out on the road to the farthest team away from them in the SJHL, Flin Flon.
A pedestrian first period saw the North Stars lead in the shot department by a 6-3 margin.
Both teams ramped up the shots in the second period, and goals followed suit.
Colby Porter broke the deadlock when he managed to jam a puck past Tremblay during a goal mouth scramble to give the Ice Wolves a 1-0 lead 11 minutes into the period.
Without Matthew Saharchuk, Reed Delainey and Brady O'Sullivan in the lineup due to injury, the North Stars turned to their depth players to provide offence.
Otto Mitchell tied the game on the power play with 4:09 remaining in the game when he skated down the middle of the ice, picked up a loose puck in the slot that Brendan Heinrich threw towards the goal and somehow managed to roof the puck over a sprawling Kris Joyce while being hauled down by Adam Painchoud.
Shortly after Mitchell's goal, Jake Calverley was given a five-minute major penalty for boarding when he hit Joel Blaquiere from behind.
Kyler Wilkinson quickly jumped Calverley to defend his teammate, as the two wrestled to the ice and nearly fought again after the officials had separated them.
Early in the third the Ice Wolves regained their one-goal lead when a shot from the point by Colby Daniels appeared to deflect off the stick of Logan Nachtegaele and past Tremblay.
Nachtegaele quicky redeemed himself however, as just two and a half minutes later he deflected Heinrich's long shot over the blocker of Joyce to tie the game once again.
Five minutes after that Nick Fountain found himself all alone in front of Joyce while on the power play and pulled the puck to his backhand before sliding it into the empty cage to give the North Stars their first lead of the game.
The Ice Wolves thought they tied the game with about six minutes remaining when a point shot took a deflection off something in front of the net, and appeared to bounce off the back post of the net before quickly bouncing out.
The officials called no-goal as play continued, and Heinrich eventually iced the game with an empty net goal, ending the North Stars losing streak.
Battlefords now hits the road for three games, with a stop in Nipawin to take on the Hawks (28-12-2-3) Tuesday, before heading to Flin Flon to take on the Bombers (24-9-6-6) Wednesday, and ending the trip with a rematch against La Ronge Saturday.
