As long as the CanElson Drilling Estevan Bruins could avoid one outcome, the race for home ice in the Sherwood Conference survivor series would go down to last night's final games.
But a 4-3 road loss to the Weyburn Red Wings on Saturday, combined with the Kindersley Klippers' 3-2 shootout win over the Nipawin Hawks, clinched fourth place for the Klippers.
The Bruins had defeated Weyburn 3-2 at Spectra Place on Friday.
The Klippers-Bruins series begins on Saturday and Sunday with the first two games in Kindersley.
It swings back to Spectra Place on March 5 and, if necessary, March 6, for Game 3 and Game 4, and, if necessary, Game 5 will go March 7 in Kindersley.
All games begin at 7:30 p.m., except for Game 2 on Sunday, which starts at 6 p.m.
Meanwhile, on Saturday in Weyburn, the Wings took a 4-1 lead early in the third period and the Bruins couldn't make up the deficit.
Josh Lees opened the scoring for the Red Wings at 5:25 at the first, but Leighton McLachlan replied barely two minutes later to tie the game.
Ryan Ostertag then gave Weyburn a 2-1 lead with a goal at 11:29.
Austin Roesslein netted the only goal of the second period for Weyburn at the 14:55 mark.
The Wings took a stranglehold on the game early in the third, when Thomas Carleton scored at 2:21 to make it 4-1.
Estevan did make a comeback bid, with Tanner Froese scoring their second goal midway through the period.
Cole Olson got them within a goal six minutes later, but it was not enough.
"Obviously it was (Weyburn's) last game of the year and they want to come out and do their best. Their 20-year-olds are going to be motivated. I still think we had good jump in that game," said Bruins head coach Keith Cassidy.
Backup goalie Tyler Ross, who rejoined the Bruins on Friday after spending some time with them in 2011-12, started the game. He had not played any high-level hockey this season.
"I think he'd tell you he'd like to have a couple of them back, but he also made some incredible saves. On balance, I think he did pretty well for his first game back," Cassidy said.
Defenceman Tyler Kauk and forwards Hudson Morrison, Darcy DeRoose and Brett Dumaine all sat out on Saturday.
On Friday, Tyler Paslawski scored the game-winner at 2:23 of the third.
"That line had a great night. They just cycled the puck, wore the D down and took it to the front of the net and they were rewarded with a good, hard-working goal," said Cassidy.
Weyburn's Ty McLean scored the only goal of the first period at 13:26 on a power play, and Ostertag put the Wings ahead 2-0 less than two minutes into the second.
Wyatt Garagan got the Bruins on the board four minutes into the frame, roofing a shot over goalie J.P. Boucher on a breakaway after taking a stretch pass from Nick Egan.
Dylan Smith tied the game at the 14:22 mark, putting in a rebound on a power play.
With the Bruins not getting home-ice advantage against the Klippers, Cassidy said his team needs to hit the reset button and not worry about playing on the road.
"It's a whole new season, right? Everything's reset to zero and regardless of whether we're at home or on the road, if we're going make it, we're going to have to learn to play on the road anyway.
"One of our keys is getting off to a quick start. Our record's pretty good when we get on the board first," he added. "If we can be fast in our own end, we generally have success. We'll be harping on that. We've had better success lately putting the puck in the net (too)."
