The focus for the Estevan Bruins on the weekend was to tighten up defensively and keep scoring goals, and that's exactly what they did.
The Bruins (4-2) throttled a lacklustre Notre Dame Hounds squad 9-1 on Friday before edging the Melville Millionaires 3-2 in the first game at Horizon Credit Union Centre the next night.
Head coach Keith Cassidy attributed part of the low goals-against total to the play of rookie goalie Steven Glass, who won his first two SJHL starts.
"Glass played very well over those two games. He certainly wasn't tested much against Notre Dame, but he was rock solid against Melville," Cassidy said.
Saturday's game was one the Bruins had keyed on as a chance to show that they could do to Melville what the Mils hadn't been able to do to them on opening night at Spectra Place.
"I saw some determination. They were pretty pumped up for that game. They wanted to show that our home opener wasn't a fluke," Cassidy said of his team.
The home side took the early lead on a historic marker by Dustin Eberle at 14:36 of the first period.
Estevan was given a golden opportunity to do some damage late in the frame when Tyler Bird handed them a seven-minute power play for raining punches on a defenceless Derek Whitehill, but they failed to capitalize.
"For us, it went really bad. We didn't generate any scoring opportunities and it was a pretty big emotional lift for them. But we bounced back from our poor effort there," Cassidy said.
Calder Neufeld would even the game with his league-leading ninth goal at 16:50 of the second, with Bird again in the box.
Dylan Smith gave the Bruins their first lead 52 seconds into the third and Matt Dochylo added some insurance barely two minutes later.
"Dochylo's goal couldn't have come at a better time and it was a beautiful play," Cassidy said.
It would stand up as the winner when Melville's Lucas Froese scored with 36 seconds remaining to set up a tense finish.
"I saw some good sacrifices at the end, guys blocking shots and doing whatever it takes to win," said Cassidy.
Dominic Perrault (second fight on same stoppage) and Austin Daae (team's second goalie interference penalty) both sat out on Saturday, serving automatic one-game suspensions stemming from Friday's game.
The Bruins dominated the Hounds from start to finish Friday, leading 4-0 after the first period and 7-1 after the second.
Dylan Smith (2), Calder Neufeld, Eric Baldwin, Tanner Froese, Taylor Reich, Austin Yano, Josh Jelinski and Tyler Kauk supplied the offence for the Bruins, with Baldwin and Kauk scoring their first SJHL goals.
"Like I've been saying all along, we've got a lot of talent on this team and at any given time we can put the puck in the net," Cassidy said.
"We caught them on an off-night and we took advantage of that."
Following the weekend action, Neufeld, Smith and linemate Cole Olson were all tied for the SJHL scoring lead with 13 points.
