The Estevan Apex Bruins ground their way to one victory and cruised to another last week.
The midget AA squad got a late goal from Kaelan Holt on Jan. 13 to edge the second-place Notre Dame Hounds 5-4, and routed the Notre Dame Argos 6-2 on Sunday.
The Bruins also lost 5-2 to the Regina Wild in the capital city on Monday.
In Wilcox against the Argos, the Bruins got two goals apiece from Marc Shaw and Dylan Lay, and singles from Jolan Lingelbach and Mason Benning.
Jacob Gammelgard and Josh Woodrow replied for the Argos.
It took only 41 seconds for Shaw to score the lid-lifter, on a feed by Lay.
Exactly seven minutes later, Lay netted an unassisted marker to put the Bruins up by two.
Gammelgard countered for Notre Dame at 17:25 on a power play, putting Estevan ahead 2-1 at the break.
Shaw scored again three minutes into the second period, and Lingelbach potted the team's fourth goal at the 4:55 mark to extend the lead to three goals.
Benning's power play tally at 11:08 put the game virtually out of reach for the Argos.
They did respond with a second goal though, with Woodrow scoring on the power play at 16:43.
The only goal of the third period came at 10:37, as Lay scored the Bruins' third power play goal and his fourth point of the game.
The Argos outshot the Bruins 24-22. Tanner Tytlandsvik was in goal for Estevan.
On Wednesday, with the Estevan Minor Hockey Association handing out its volunteer of the year award to Ambie and Sheryl Hengen prior to the game, the Bruins played a game worthy of the occasion, fending off a late Hounds comeback.
"They just rise up. We had lots of adversity in this game, we had injuries where our bench got short, and they just seemed to come through," said Bruins head coach Dalton Giblett.
"Kaelan Holt had an unbelievable effort in the third. He blows a skate and still continues and scores two huge goals. Other guys had an impact too, but he kinda took the bull by the horns late in that game."
Jason Hengen scored the only goal of the first period, coming at the 6:13 mark.
In the second, it was Talys Halabuza adding to the lead at the 2:12 mark.
Rhett Kingston struck back for the Hounds at 6:22, but only 56 seconds later, Blaine Herzberg made it 3-1 on a power play.
The Hounds responded less than five minutes later on a power play marker by Jarod Hilderman, cutting the lead to 3-2 at the intermission.
The first 10 minutes of the third period were scoreless, but that would change in a hurry.
Holt scored his first of two goals at the 11:25 mark to put the Bruins up by two.
But Notre Dame responded in kind, with Guillaume Baur scoring just nine seconds later.
Riley Rozdeba netted another goal two minutes later to tie the game 4-4.
"Whenever we score a goal, especially like (this game), it was said right on the bench, let's not give it back to them, right?" said Giblett.
"Ten seconds later, it's in our net. Even though you don't want it to happen, sometimes it just does and you have a little breakdown. But I thought for the most part, we did an excellent job of getting the pucks out of our end when we were having trouble. The guys battled along the boards and won those battles late in the third."
Holt scored again with 2:52 remaining and that stood up as the winner.
It was a chippy affair, particularly in the second period, and Giblett said it's important for his team to stay focused in those situations.
"That's our problem all year. When we do get into this stuff, we gotta learn from this. We gotta learn from the adversity that you can't be taking selfish penalties, because what are you gaining? You take the number and get the guy later. The selfish penalties, they've gotta stop, otherwise we're not going to go very far," Giblett said.
The Bruins went 1-for-10 on the power play against the Hounds and the coach said that area needs to get better.
"We controlled the play really well and we got some good shots at times, (but we're) still not to the point we want to be with our power play. We have trouble understanding taking what they're giving us, but hopefully we can get that ironed out down the stretch here."
The Bruins (16-10-6) are in seventh place entering this weekend's games, Friday at the Prairie Storm and Sunday at the Regina Capitals. They still have a chance to finish as high as fourth place.
