The 11th place Battlefords Midget Stars hosted the seventh place Tisdale Trojans on the weekend and it was the Stars earning two big wins on home ice.
For this first time this season, the Stars swept a weekend winning the games with 6-1 and 4-3 scores.
Blair Mahon started both games on the weekend for the Stars and was solid making a total of 59 saves.
Saturday, Tisdale drew first blood when Eric Maroretta beat Mahon.
Nineteen seconds later, the Stars scored and didn't look back. Jeff Olson scored his team leading 14th of the season from Colby Cave and Reece Fenrich.
In the second, Jesse Gerbig scored his 10th of the season from Colby Daniels. Later, Daniels scored his eighth from Gerbig and Dylan Fluter.
The Stars led 3-1 after two periods and continued to control the play in the third. Early in the final period, Fluter scored his 11th goal of the season from Daniels.
Olson added an empty net goal from Cody Thiel with over two minutes left in the third and Blake Young capped off the scoring with a powerplay goal from Garrett Zelinski and Cave for his 10th of the year.
The Stars went 1/4 on the powerplay while killing off all four shorthanded situations.
The next day, the Stars were looking to do something they hadn't done since Feb. 20 and 21, 2010 - sweep a weekend series.
The Stars appeared to be in complete control after the first taking a 3-0 lead into the break.
Gerbig pounced on a loose puck with Fenrich and Fluter earning the assists on the game's first goal Sunday.
Later, on a powerplay, Young made a beautiful deflection on a Cave pass from the half boards to go up 2-0. Olson also had the second assist.
Next it was Daniels banging in a cross-crease pass in the goalmouth to complete the Stars' first period scoring and Fluter and Gerbig had the assists.
Later in the first, Gerbig came to the defence of a linemate, but received a checking to the head penalty along with Tisdale's Ty McLean. Tisdale's Spencer Wand also received a game misconduct on the play.
After all the excitement, the home team led 3-0 after 20 minutes and looked like a team under control and were exciting to watch.
In the second, Tisdale started to claw back into the game. First it was Jarrett Fontaine scoring in the final two minutes of the period. McLean later scored on a powerplay making it 3-2 heading into the second intermission.
Wyatt Garagan tied the game with 7:30 gone in the period and the teams ended in a 3-3 lock after 60 minutes.
Tisdale's Jeff Hubic took a roughing penalty with 42 seconds left in the third and after the Tisdale coach was given a game misconduct, the Stars made them pay in overtime.
Young scored 51 seconds into extra time from Olson and Cave and the Stars won back-to-back games on home ice for the first time since Dec. 20 and 21, 2008.
Mahon made 25 saves for the win, improving his record to 5-11-1.
The wins were Greg Schmidt's first and second as the coach of the Stars since taking over in January.
The Stars remain 13 points out of a playoff spot and have just 10 games remaining, but if the weekend was any sign of what to expect, this team doesn't appear to be ready to mail in the season. They are going to try to make the most of it and enjoy it while earning respect along the way.
The Stars' next action is Friday and Saturday at home against the Swift Current Legionnaires. They wrap up the month of January with a road trip to Wilcox to play the last place Notre Dame Hounds, meaning their next four games are against the 10th and 12th place teams. It's a great opportunity to put a hot winning streak together.
