The Estevan TS&M Bruins came away from their first two home games knowing they were capable of more.
The bantam AA club lost 5-2 to the Humboldt Broncos on Saturday, then tied the Saskatoon Generals 5-5 the next day.
On Saturday, the Bruins had a less-than-spectacular outing against a team that finished in the Saskatchewan Bantam AA Hockey League cellar last year, winning only three games.
Bruins head coach Tom Copeland said he wasn't happy with his team's performance against Humboldt and that it didn't reflect his team's 4-1 start to the season on the road.
"Our effort sucked. We need to have a better effort for sure. We just went in there and talked to the kids about effort (after the game). That isn't the team that's played the last five games at all."
Copeland added that it was actually a trio of rookies that shone for the Bruins on Saturday.
"Our fourth line, (Ryder) Pierson, (Colton) Schell and (Dawson) Nobiss, hands down they outworked the rest of our team. It wasn't even close. That can't be, a line full of rookies just out there showing the rest of the team how to play hockey.
"There were lots of poor penalties, interference calls and things like that that you just can't take. They're killers. We've only got five defencemen right now and to lose a guy to a silly penalty like that, it hurts you. You could see it. Our defencemen were bagged by the end of the game."
Justin Pronych drew first blood for the Broncos less than five minutes into the game, and that was the lone goal in the first period.
Humboldt extended their lead in the first half of the second period, scoring three goals in a span of seven minutes.
Reagan Poncelet made it 2-0 on a power play 80 seconds into the period, taking a pass in the slot and burying it.
Barely a minute later, Jacob Leicht took a centring pass from behind the net and scored while falling to the ice.
Humboldt scored another power play marker at the 8:47 mark of the period, with Erik Gardiner getting credit for a goal resulting from a scramble in front of the Estevan net.
Schell got the Bruins on the board later in the frame, firing a wrist shot high glove side on a breakaway at the 13-minute mark.
The Bruins would score again midway through the third, with Little scoring five-hole on a breakaway.
Gardiner closed out the scoring with five minutes left, beating Bruins goalie Ethan Veroba from the slot.
Copeland noted there were some missed opportunities that could have resulted in a different outcome.
"There were a couple of swing plays there. If (Cole) Fonstad could've scored when he hit the post there in the second period; even early there, when (Brady) Long swung it through the slot and Little missed it, that could've been a big goal for us too because that could've turned it around a bit.
"It wasn't that we did anything wrong, it's just they've got a lot of big bodies and they put them into space. The kids have just gotta learn to be a little more patient and wait for the right shot, as opposed to trying to rush it a little bit."
Sunday's game was a better result for the Bruins, although the Generals scored two unanswered goals to pull themselves into a tie.
Estevan led 2-1 after the first period, with goals by Jayden Davis and Josh Skjonsby bookending Saskatoon's lone marker from Kaije Derkachenko.
Preston Brodziak put the Bruins ahead 3-1 at the 8:28 mark of the second, only for Saskatoon's Martial Hodgson to respond barely a minute later.
The Bruins would strike right back though, with Nobiss restoring the two-goal lead just 13 seconds after the Generals' marker.
Hodgson scored again on a power play with 17 seconds left in the period to make it 4-3 after 40 minutes.
Hunter Piche added to the Bruins' lead three minutes into the third, but the Generals replied again two minutes later on a power play goal by Jonah Bumphrey.
Bumphrey scored again with 5:31 left in regulation to tie the game.
The Bruins' next regular season action comes Oct. 26, when they host the Saskatoon Maniacs.
