Every coach and every player knew how important the two games were.
Two losses against the last-place Weyburn Red Wings, and the CanElson Drilling Estevan Bruins would fall to 2-7 on the season and dig a hole almost impossible to get out of. It would also be a huge hit to their psyche after being hammered 6-1 by the Melfort Mustangs on Oct. 7.
Two wins, and they would find new hope, clawing back almost to the .500 mark.
Well, two wins would have been ideal, but the Bruins will settle for three of four points.
The Bruins (3-5-1) earned a 3-1 victory at Affinity Place on Friday, then fell 4-3 in a shootout in Weyburn the next night.
"We kept battling back and that's a positive I take out of it. The guys never gave up," Bruins head coach Chris Lewgood said of Saturday's loss, in which his club came back from three one-goal deficits.
"There were a lot of banged up bodies on our bench tonight and the one thing folks wouldn't know is how much adversity we faced that way. You don't settle for losses often, and we had more to give, but overall we're pretty happy with the effort tonight.
We'll take it, and we don't have a choice. We talked beforehand, not with the players but as a staff, and said we need a minimum of three out of this weekend. We got it, but it would have been nice to get that fourth one."
Weyburn's Brendan McKay opened the scoring less than five minutes in, wristing the puck past Bruins starter Tyler Gutenberg from the high slot on a power play.
An unlikely scorer emerged midway through the period, as defenceman Brandon Schaber, playing up front due to injuries, tied it up from the bottom of the right faceoff circle.
The Red Wings got a shorthanded goal to regain the lead halfway through the second period. Jon Brumwell pounced on a David Robertson turnover at the blue line, then fired high from the high slot to beat Gutenberg.
Just 90 seconds later, recent acquisition Charlie Manley scored his first SJHL goal, converting on a centring pass from Kurt Sonne.
Manley is an 18-year-old defenceman from Orchard Park, N.Y., who the club recently signed. He played with the North American Hockey League's Austin Bruins last season and was a late cut from the USHL this year. He also has a scholarship to RPI.
The big rearguard played in his first SJHL game on Friday.
"I thought he was great. I love his aggressive gap control and his skating. He's so confident with his skating. He broke up several plays in the neutral zone that we may not have had broken up otherwise. I really like him. He's going to get caught once in a while, but I think in the end when you evaluate that, it's a lot more positive than negative. He was pretty much exactly what we expected him to be," Lewgood said of Manley.
"Manley's a little flashy looking with the way he skates and carries the puck and that. He's very attentive to the little details in puck handling and those things. But at the same time, he is a defender. Those guys are good shutdown type guys. He uses his skating to defend better than anything else, and he doesn't take any unnecessary chances offensively, but he does take chances in the neutral zone and the defensive side, with an aggressive gap and pinching in when he sees the opportunity."
Braden Mellon gave Weyburn the lead again five minutes into the third when a shot caromed off the end boards and he put it in at the side of the net.
"We could have picked up sticks a little better in the D zone. Their third goal was a little bit reminiscent of what we saw in the Melfort game, where it's just a guy who missed an assignment out front and the guy banged in a rebound off the back wall and we should've had his stick. Some things like that, Weyburn's going hard to the net and they're a (hard-nosed) team and they do everything hard. You gotta be strong on each shift, and if you take one off, there's a good chance they're going to get opportunities, and tonight they were able to bury them," Lewgood said.
Halfway through the third, Darcy DeRoose drew the Bruins even again, skating into the offensive zone on a 1-on-3 and firing a wrister top shelf.
There was a scare in overtime when Gutenberg made a pad save, but the puck trickled past him just wide of the post.
In the shootout, Drake Glover scored the winner, putting a backhand five-hole. DeRoose and Pastachak missed for the Bruins, while Matt Eng also scored for Weyburn and Donavon Lumb missed.
Gutenberg was getting his third start of the year, including his second straight, all coming against Weyburn.
Although starter Brett Lewchuk took a puck off the knee during warmup on Friday, Lewgood said Gutenberg's back-to-back starts had nothing to do with that.
"(Lewchuk) is OK. He was ready to go (Saturday) if he'd be in, but we went to Gutenberg. Guty's played well for us, and he won twice against Weyburn and he got us another point tonight. There was no sense in going away from him," the coach said.
"He's outstanding. He's played three games for us and he's been excellent in all three."
Bruins captain Nolan Nicholas was also impressed with his team's puckstopper.
"He was solid. Stood on his head both games, I'd say. He was there, you'd make a mistake and he'd cover for us every time. It's great playing in front of him."
Nicholas was also happy that the team never gave up despite trailing three times.
"We showed a lot of character that we came back every time and it was nice to see, but it'd be better to play on the other side of that," he said.
"(We need to) tighten up our D zone a little bit, but that's every game. You're not going to have a perfect game. You're always going to make mistakes. But I liked how we stayed positive and came back."
Shots on goal were 34-30 for Weyburn.
On Friday, meanwhile, the Bruins had a rare good start to the game and that fuelled them for the rest of the night.
Lewgood said the team has struggled to put a full effort together this year and that playing a full 60 minutes was critical on Friday.
"I think it's very important. It's important every night and generally speaking, the team that strings together the most consistent effort comes out on top in this league, because there's so much parity. It was huge. It was good to see the guys come out with that. And you know with Weyburn, they're so well coached and such a hard-working team that they're going to push you to the limit, and it was important to get that 60 minutes tonight."
On scoring two goals in the first 10 minutes, Lewgood said it was important mentally.
"I think you can't have a full 60 without the first 10. But also, for the psyche of the guys, I think with the young group we have here, we've had a couple slow starts that really took a toll on our guys' mentality,ß and I think a solid start tonight is beneficial to us."
Pastachak struck first at the 5:42 mark, converting on a strong power play that has been a strength for the club in the early going.
Forward Keegan Allison made his return to the lineup after recovering from a shoulder injury that had kept him out since the season opener on Sept. 18. He tied the game four minutes later on a breakaway.
Lewgood was very impressed with Allison's play in his return.
"I thought Keegan Allison was the best player on the ice tonight by a country mile. Having him back with those guys, and any combination we put together with our top six, it's going to be a lot more solid with Keegan Allison involved."
The top line of Allison, Pastachak and DeRoose accounted for all three Bruins goals, and Allison said there was a good reason for their chemistry.
"We've been practising together all year and just been waiting for a moment to be on the same line together so we could put it to good use," said the Saskatoon native.
The Red Wings got on the board at 7:37 of the second period on a 5-on-3 power play. A shot hit the inside of Gutenberg's pad and sat in the crease behind him, waiting for McKay to tap it into the empty net.
Estevan replied less than five minutes later, with DeRoose potting an Allison rebound on an odd-man rush.
Lewgood said the play of the top line was the biggest factor in the win.
"They were great. They definitely carried the load for us tonight. Although it was a consistent effort throughout the lineup, I thought those guys were the biggest difference in the game and obviously on the scoreboard they were. It was great. They did exactly what we expect them to do on a regular basis and maybe even a little more tonight."
Allison said the win was crucial for the team's confidence.
"It was huge. Huge game. Full team effort. Way, way better start. That's what we needed. If we score the first goal, we have a better mindset for the whole game," he commented.
"The forecheck was huge, turning over pucks was huge. We need to keep that going for the rest of the year."
Rice suffered a minor injury in the game, but before that, in his first game of the year at forward, he caught Lewgood's attention.
"He was definitely an impact. I like Rice as a d-man, but he's also a real good forward, and I thought tonight he made an impact in most of the shifts he was on the ice. When he was out there, I thought he made a difference."
Several players were suiting up with injuries on Saturday, and a few others missed the game.
Asked for an injury update, Lewgood joked, "We can't do them all. We don't have enough time.
Rice, Keaton Longpre and Brad Arabia missed Saturday's game and are all day-to-day. Lewgood said the guys who played hurt that night should be OK for tonight's game against the Flin Flon Bombers.
Recent trade acquisition Taylor Ross is still a couple of weeks away from playing.
Tonight's game goes at 7:30 p.m. at Affinity Place. The Bruins will be on the road this weekend, visiting the Humboldt Broncos on Friday, the Battlefords North Stars on Saturday and the Kindersley Klippers on Sunday.
