Aided by a pair of first-period pushes, the Home Hardware Midget AAA Legionnaires handed the visiting Yorkton Maulers a weekend sweep at the Innovation Credit Union iPlex.

Swift Current never trailed and held a lead for 116:57 of 120 minutes over the pair of contests.

Saturday night's affair saw a trio of Legionnaires' strikes in the first period.

Riley Dekowny scored 2:31 in, and again on the powerplay with 9:26 to go in the opening frame to set the tone early. Spencer Bell added the third with 6:18 left in the first.

"We came out I thought really strong and we did a lot of good things - managed the puck, and got it around the net. We just kind of came at them and they didn't have an answer," said Legionnaires' head coach Darren Evjen, as his team out-shot the Maulers 22-8 in the first.

The second period saw a pair of goals from both teams.

The Maulers scored with 12:08 left in the frame, but Legionnaires forwards Quinn Strang and Logan Linklater countered 1:03 apart in the final five minutes to push it to a 5-1 lead. Yorkton made it a 5-2 game with a goal 98 seconds before the second intermission.

"What happened was we got into special teams period," said Evjen, as both the Legionnaires and Maulers had three minor penalties.

"It wasn't our discipline, but it's just that's the way it played out. It takes you out of your rhythm. I think that's probably more so what happened in the second period for us."

The Maulers did make the game fairly interesting in the third period, scoring 3:45 in to cut the Legionnaires' lead to just a pair.

Jaxon Martens countered just 48 seconds later to restore the three-goal lead, but the Maulers again pushed it back down to two, scoring 24 after that.

It stayed a 6-4 game until Cash Arntsen buried the game's final goal with 8:45 to go in the game, giving the Legionnaires a 7-4 win.

The weekend finale was a Redhead Equipment Local Sports Live broadcast heard live on The Eagle 94.1 Sunday afternoon.

The Legionnaires needed just 32 seconds to score the eventual game-winner.

A shot block from Arntsen sprung Strang on an odd-man rush, firing a shot under the blocker of the Maulers netminder.

"We knew we had to have a good start. We want to get them behind the 8-ball right away, and getting themselves doubting each other," said Evjen. "That's what you need to do with a team that's below you. I thought the Strang line getting that goal was important."

Martens made it a 2-0 lead after the first period, scoring with 1:39 remaining.

After one minor penalty for the Legionnaires and four for Yorkton in the first period, the seats in the penalty boxes were barely vacant long enough to cool down over the final two frames.

"I think the biggest thing, when you get into a game like that where there's lots of special teams, the team that can just keep their composure a little bit more and take advantage of their opportunities, that's what you have to do," said Evjen. "I thought today we kept our composure in situations where we could have went the other way."

Strang scored the lone goal of the second period with 2:37 to go, and on the powerplay, to extend the lead to 3-0.

That powerplay was one of three in the period for Swift Current, who also allowed the Maulers three cracks on the powerplay - including a lengthy stretch of 5-on-3 play.

The PIMs racked up in the final frame especially.

Yorkton piled up seven two-minute minors, and a late five-minute major and a game misconduct for head contact. Swift Current countered with five minor penalties of their own.

"It's one of those games there's a couple guys on their team that it's not hard - it's the exact opposite of hard," said Evjen on his views on the type of penalties the Legionnaires' opponent took.

"You've got to be aware out there of what's going on, you've got to stay together, but we've just got to stay to our game and be hard on them. Go after them in a physical way, and make sure they know that we're not going to put up with that."

The Legionnaires secured a second powerplay goal with 9:59 to go in the game, as Spencer Bell rounded out scoring in a 4-0 win.

The key, especially spread over stints on the penalty-kill was the play of goalie Jacob Herman for Swift Current.

Herman robbed the Maulers forwards on multiple odd-man rushes to hold Yorkton off the board.

"He made some big saves when we needed them. The difference between 4-0 and the game staying close is Herm in those situations," Evjen admitted. "In a game where it's special-teams, that's going to happen where they're going to get some quality chances, but he was there to shut the door and that was great."

It was the first shutout of the season for Herman, who made 24 saves in the winning effort.

The two weekend wins secured a playoff berth for the Legionnaires, who now can't finish lower than eighth place in the SMAAAHL.

Swift Current's 20-15-1-3 record puts them at 44 points. That mark is also now good for seventh place in the league, as they leap-frogged the Tisdale Trojans who were swept on home ice by the Battlefords Stars.

Just five games remain in the regular season for the Legionnaires. Next up on the schedule is a road game against the first-place Regina Pat Canadians (29-7-5-0) Wednesday night at the Cooperators Centre.

The previous two meetings have been as thrilling as they come - Swift Current earned a 3-2 shootout win on December 17, while the Pat Canadians edged the Legionnaires 4-3 in OT on January 18.

"Regina plays with sand paper and they play hard, but they play honest - very similar to us - that's the important thing," said Evjen. "We're going to be looking forward to Wednesday's game."

That weekday tilt goes at 8 p.m. in Regina.