The Estevan Apex Bruins earned a win and a tie in their first home action of the season, but the midget AA club ended the weekend knowing it could have been two wins.
After defeating the Melville Millionaires 7-5 on Saturday, the Bruins held a two-goal lead over the Prairie Storm entering Sunday's third period but had to settle for a 3-3 tie.
The Storm got all of their goals on the power play, as they operated at a 3-for-10 rate with the man advantage.
"We let it slip away. You can't be happy when you're up by two and you let it slip away like that," said Bruins assistant coach Blake Jamieson.
"We got into penalty trouble. We took a couple of dumb ones and it ended up hurting us in the end."
The Bruins scored the only goal of the first period, as Jolan Lingelbach put them in front at the 11:05 mark.
They entered the second period with a lengthy 5-on-3 to kill off, and they had nearly done it when Garrett Schmidt scored on a rebound from the right faceoff circle 56 seconds into the period.
Estevan's Tyson Price got it back quickly, knocking the puck past Storm goalie Shane Blomquist at 3:25 after the tender lost control of it.
Preston Hutt extended the Bruins' lead to 3-1 at the 12:10 mark, skating down the right wing and firing a wrist shot short side.
The Bruins would hold the 3-1 lead until intermission.
The Storm drew to within a goal at 6:40 of the third when Joel Gellvear took a pass from Matt Landers off the rush and buried it from the slot.
Nine minutes after that, with 4:18 to play, Jesse Manastyrski scored a power play marker to tie the game.
Jamieson said he thought the Bruins were scrambling around too much defensively later in the game.
"We gotta learn how to play 60 minutes. It seemed like it started at the end of the second period and just continued into the third and we let it slip away like that.
"Just coming out and working like we did in the first period for the whole game sure would help."
On Saturday, the Bruins' offence powered the team to victory. Six different players scored goals, with captain Steven Henderson netting two.
Estevan led 3-1 after the first period on goals by Mason Benning, Kyle Salaway and Henderson, the latter coming with 39 seconds left in the frame.
Koal Roberts, who would end up with a hat trick, had the lone marker for Melville.
The Millionaires narrowed the score to 4-3 after two periods, getting goals from Roberts and Jayden Napady in the second.
Lingelbach had the only tally for the Bruins in the period, coming at the 12:38 mark.
In the third, Melville tied it up on an Evan Paradis goal less than three minutes in, and they took their first lead on Roberts' third of the night at 6:35.
The Bruins responded immediately, though, with Hutt scoring just five seconds later to knot the score at 5-5.
It stayed like that until Henderson's second goal of the night, coming with 1:58 to play.
Kaelan Holt added an insurance marker with 47 seconds remaining.
"It was nice to pot a few there. We had a few lapses, but we ended up scoring those last two to pull ahead by two," said Jamieson.
"It's nice to get the first win, that's for sure, but it would've been nice to get another one (Sunday), and we would've moved into first place, I'd imagine."
The Apex Bruins are home again this weekend. They host the Notre Dame Hounds on Saturday at 4 p.m. and the Regina Capitals on Sunday at 5 p.m. Both games are at Spectra Place.
