Following a 9-3 victory on home ice last Friday night, the Bienfait Coalers were looking to move past their familiar rivals in the Midale Mustangs sooner rather than later in the Best-of-3 quarterfinal series.

But the Mustangs had different ideas to start their home game on Tuesday night. Logan Martinson and Tyler Hoium scored two minutes apart halfway through the opening period to give Midale a 2-0 lead and get the home crowd into the game.

The celebratory mood would be short-lived as the Coalers tied the game at 2-2 before the intermission thanks o their lethal top line with Wyatt Garagan and Dylan Herzberg each scoring.

Bienfait would take their first lead of the game with eight minutes remaining in the 2nd period. Payden Benning took a hit in the neutral zone in order to send in his linemate Herzberg in on a scoring chance, with Herzberg picking the corner to put the Coalers ahead 3-2 after two periods.

A rough and chippy game continued on into the final frame, eventually boiling over with a brief fight between Bienfait's Kyle Garagan and Midale's Logan Martinson. Minutes later, while on the powerplay, Bienfait would get some much-needed insurance.

Garrett Lasko's shot-pass from the point would be deflected by Keegan Malaryk and into the Midale net to put Bienfait up 4-2 with only ten minutes remaining. Following another quick fight between Bienfait's Tyson Price and Midale's Steven Lindenbach, the Coalers' Brennan Wrigley would put the game away with a beautiful backhander top shelf for the 5-2 lead with four minutes left in regulation.

While the game was now likely decided, the rough stuff would continue. That led to a scary moment with just minutes left as Payden Benning took a hard hit from Daniel Fellner and crashed hard into the boards head-first. Benning was slow to get up, needing his teammates to help him to his feet and off the ice. Fellner was not penalized for the hit and received an offsetting minor penalty for roughing along with Wyatt Garagan.

Bienfait held on for the 5-2 victory. The Coalers will face the Redvers Rockets in the Best-of-5 semi-final round.

The other quarterfinal match-up on the night saw the regular season league leaders, the Carnduff Red Devils, finish off the Carlyle Cougars in two straight games. The Red Devils took the game 4-1.

After the Red Devils took the opener by a 6-2 score last Wednesday, Carnduff led 1-0 after the first period and 4-0 after two periods.The Cougars would score a single in the third period, but any other attempts at a come back were stymied by Carnduff.

Carnduff will now face the two-time defending Big Six champion Wawota Flyers in the Best-of-5 semi-final round.