The Estevan Apex Bruins stared down two stiff challenges on the weekend, and they came to play.
The midget AA club sent a message to the top teams in the South Saskatchewan Minor Hockey League, tying the first-place Notre Dame Hounds 3-3 on Saturday and beating the second-place Regina Flames 5-3 on Sunday.
"I find we've been pretty up and down. It's something to build off," said Apex Bruins head coach Dalton Giblett.
The Bruins (11-7-6) sit in seventh place in the midget AA division of the SSMHL.
On Sunday, the Bruins overcame an early 2-0 deficit to hand the Flames their fourth loss of the season.
Josh Laframboise and Kristian Brooks scored five minutes apart for the Flames in the first period, giving them a 2-0 lead at the intermission.
The Bruins got on the board at 7:48 of the second on a goal by Blaine Herzberg.
Herzberg scored again at 16:42, but Drew Kocur replied just 18 seconds later to put the Flames back on top heading to the third period.
But it was all Estevan in the third. Marc Shaw scored at 2:28 to even the score again, and Kyle Salaway gave the visitors their first lead 45 seconds later.
Tanner Jeannot netted an insurance goal with 2:49 to play.
"We started out a little sluggish, but as the game went on we got stronger and stronger. By the last half of the game, we were playing really well," said Giblett.
On Saturday, all the scoring came in the first two periods.
Jack Keaney got the league leaders on the board first 64 seconds into the game, but Herzberg responded less than three minutes later.
Shaw put the Bruins on top at the 7:27 mark, although the Hounds would get a marker from Chance Longjohn four minutes later and the game was tied 2-2 after 20 minutes.
Notre Dame took the lead again two minutes into the second period on a goal by Matt Morrison.
However, Herzberg would counter again only 39 seconds later, and Jeannot gave the Bruins the lead at the 12:22 mark.
Rhett Kingston's goal at 14:40 knotted the game yet again, and with no scoring in the third period, that was how it remained.
Giblett said the Bruins hit a crossbar with about 25 seconds left.
"We had some guys really step up and use their speed, and it kinda carried over to (Sunday's game)," he said. "(Tyson) Price did some really good things as far as taking the body and battling for the puck. Our goaltending was solid both games."
Meanwhile, the Bruins found themselves knocked out of provincials early for the second straight year with a 4-4 tie against Weyburn on Jan. 16. That gave them a 10-5 loss on aggregate.
Weyburn had won the first game 6-1, so the Bruins had a nearly insurmountable hill to climb.
They came out of the gate strong though, taking a 2-0 lead after the first period on goals by Herzberg and Shaw.
Salaway and Steven Henderson had the team's other tallies.
Brandon McGillis (2), Jacob Eger and Karsen Szczecinski supplied the Wings' offence.
The team has a few days off this week and Giblett said he plans to put the time to good use.
"I see some bad habits forming. I see some things we've gotta fix up. We've gotta get back to the tempo we had a month and a half ago. We've got some important games coming up."
The Bruins host the Regina Capitals on Saturday at 4 p.m. and Swift Current on Sunday at 2:45 p.m. Both games are at Spectra Place.
