The mid-season growing pains continued for the Home Hardware Midget AAA Legionnaires in Friday and Sunday contests at the Innovation Credit Union iPlex.

Swift Current hosted the Battlefords Stars December 13 at the iPlex in the first of two neck-and-neck games of the weekend.

The two teams traded goals, though the Stars sunk the Legionnaires 4-3 in OT.

Riley Dekowny gave Swift Current a 1-0 lead after the first period, though two Stars' strikes in the second offset a goal from Cash Arntsen to stand at 2-2 after two periods of play.

The Stars edged ahead short-handed in the third, though Maguire Scheidt scored the final goal of regulation with 5:50 remaining.

Into overtime, Battlefords scored just 1:39 into the five-minute frame, handing Swift Current earned a single point in the loss.

"I thought we played really good Friday," said Legionnaires head coach Darren Evjen. "We had lots of chances, and we need lots of chances to score - that's just us. I thought we did that, and we created. We kept the puck out of our net pretty good."

The Stars narrowly held the shot advantage in a 39-36 effort. Jacob Herman made 35 saves.

Then on Sunday, the Legionnaires hosted the Tisdale Trojans.

It was anyone's game, especially through the first two periods of play. The two teams were tied 1-1 after the first on a Brandon von Hagen goal for Swift Current, then 2-2 after two courtesy of Arntsen's second of the weekend.

Tisdale put two on the board, with the latter an empty-netter to hand the Legionnaires a 4-2 loss.

"I think we played pretty good. We're there for 60 minutes, we had a good start," said goalie Jacob Herman, who had 29 saves in the game. "We were right there, I made a bad play on the (third) goal they had, and that was it. We were in the right spots, we were trying to make plays, and we were working hard."

"Both of our games, we're playing better now as a group," added Evjen. "We're playing better, but like I said to the group, we've got to be able to pass the puck better, and that will increase our chances and increase our scoring. But, we played solid again today. We didn't give up very much, but we've got to score, and keep some more pucks out."

Swift Current is now in sole possession of the eighth-and-final playoff spot in the Sask Midget AAA Hockey League at 12-12-0-2, though still with 18 games to play this season.

"Every night is going to be a must-win for us now if we're going to make playoffs - that's for sure where we've gotten to," said Evjen. "We need everybody, and right now everybody's trying. That's what you've got to do. If you want to be a hockey player, in the hard times, that's when your best players will dig in."

"We know that if we just stick with it, it'll come," added Herman, noting patience and persistence with the game plan is key. "Last year, St. Louis wasn't even in a playoff spot before Christmas and they won the Cup, so I don't think we can get discouraged."

One game remains in the 2019 portion of the SMAAAHL schedule - Tuesday night at home to the Regina Pat Canadians. The Pat C's topped the Legionnaires 7-3 on December 8 at the iPlex, in the second of their current four-game slide.

"We've got to get the ship going the other way, and Regina's perfect. They're a good, hard team, good structure, and they'll push you into a hard game or they'll push you right out of the game," said Evjen.

It'll be the last chance at two points before Swift Current heads to the Mac's tournament in Calgary, which opens Boxing Day.

"We'll come out flying - they handed it to us last time," said Herman. "It's a perfect test. We've got some good teams in the Mac's, and they're a fast team. They get to the net, and we'll have to battle."

Catch all the action between the Legionnaires and third-place Pat Canadians (18-6-3-0) live on The Eagle 94.1, in the last Redhead Equipment Local Sports Live broadcast of 2019.

The First Avenue Dental pre-game show is live at 7:30 p.m., with puck drop set for 7:45.