The Cabri Bulldogs are one win away from earning the 2019-20 Whitemud Hockey League title.

It was a hard-checking Game 3 battle with the Maple Creek Hawks Saturday night in Cabri.

The Redhead Local Sports Live broadcast, heard on The Eagle 94.1, saw the series tied at one game apiece, with the home team having taken the first two tilts of the series.

Cabri head coach Brett Dickie said heading into Game 3, they knew the importance of exercising home-ice advantage early and often.

"I think playing at home in this series has been crucial. We get out to a good start with the fans behind us," he said. "We talked about that before the game. We've got to get pumped up, get ready to go, get the fans behind our backs, and just carry that forward. Get the first 10 minutes under our belt and keep going."

That's exactly what the Bulldogs did.

Kenton Dulle scores the game's first goal to put Cabri up, though that was answered by Hawks forward Cullen Bradshaw to knot it up at 1-1.

Cabri stuck with it, finishing out the first period with a game-defining burst of scoring.

Phil Gossard put one home with 5:37 to go in the first frame, before two more Dulle goals (5:08, 3:32) gave him the hat-trick and the Bulldogs a 4-1 lead.

"I think once we got that second one, we just started to build our confidence up a little bit, and we got some pressure on them," Dickie said. "We started taking some shots, and I think that was the key at that time - to keep shooting on their goalie. He played well, but once we had the momentum there, we had to keep shooting on him and they started going in."

Momentum shifted slightly in the Hawks' favour in the second period, though again only one goal materialized.

Bulldogs' forward Brent Wilson put Cabri up 5-1, but Maple Creek kept the deficit at three heading into the second intermission, courtesy of Dayton Reinboldt.

Scoring broke open in the third period, as the two teams alternated goals to close the game.

Gossard's second made it 6-3 Cabri, but again Bradshaw scored to trim the Hawks' deficit to three.

George Hudec put Cabri back up by four, before Cody Florkowski scored the game's final goal for Maple Creek.

It ended a 7-4 win for the Bulldogs, who take the 2-1 series lead in the physical best-of-five battle.

Brendan Newton earned the victory in net for Cabri, while Darcy French was tagged with the loss.

Maple Creek is now on the ropes in the Whitemud Finals, and will be defending home ice Friday night looking to force Game 5.

Cabri's head coach said it'll be a grind to try and be the first road team to steal a game.

"We have a hard time going into their barn. I think we're 0-3 this year," Dickie said. "We've got to get everybody focused before-hand, we've got to go in their with confidence, play our game, get it deep at the start and get some forecheck on their D-men. Just start to play our game in their barn - that's a tough thing to do in Maple Creek. They play really well there."

Game 4 is set for March 13 at 8 p.m. in Maple Creek.

Catch all the action once again live on The Eagle 94.1. It's a 7:45 p.m. start to the Redhead Equipment Local Sports Live broadcast.