The Estevan Bruins and Weyburn Red Wings don't play boring hockey games, even if they're squaring off in preseason action.

The Bruins and Red Wings played a pair of one-goal games, each winning one on September 7 and 8 with the road team taking both contests. Estevan earned a 2-1 victory in Weyburn in regulation, while Weyburn claimed a 5-4 win in overtime in Estevan. 

The two games were tight and hard fought, but otherwise could not have been more different. In the first game, eleven different players were ejected and no fewer than five fights broke out. Estevan was playing with just two of the defensemen they'd started the game with by the halfway point of the third period. 

Despite the handicap, Estevan held on for a 2-1 win over Weyburn with Matthew Chekay scoring on a shorthanded breakaway and Michael McChesney tipping in Aigne McGeady-Bruce's point shot on the power play.

With both coaches calling the game sloppy and unrepresentative of their teams, the two sqauds had it in mind to do better on Saturday night, and they treated the crowd to a show at Affinity Place. After the first period, the Red Wings led 2-0 as Ben Hiltz sniped his second of the weekend past a screened Kaidin Kilpatrick and Sean Olson stole the puck from Kilpatrick behind the net and tucked it past him.

SATURDAY HIGHLIGHTS:

The Bruins cut into the lead at even strength as Isaiah Thomas carried the puck over the blueline on a three-on-two and took the shot himself, blistering it into the net for his first of the preseason. The Bruins quickly surrendered another, however, as Jake Mulder darted his way out of the corner and went upstairs on the backhand to restore the two goal lead.

Before the second period was over, Eddie Gallagher had the Bruins back within one. George Cathers freed up the puck with a strong forecheck and fed it out front to Gallagher. Finding himself all alone, Gallagher wasted no time rifling the puck past Liam McCloskey.

With Estevan on a five-on-three advantage, the Bruins tied the game for the first time since the first period. Again it was Thomas, holding onto the puck and showing off a lightning quick release to square the score.

Again the Red Wings responded, and for the third time in the weekend it was Hiltz, who hammered a one-timer home to give Weyburn the lead back. 

It looked as if Weyburn would skate to a regulation win, especially with the Bruins shorthanded late. With 40 seconds left, however, McChesney singlehandedly willed the puck out of the zone, broke in two-on-one, and sent a laser to the far side past McCloskey to knot the score at four.

Though the Bruins forced overtime, the Red Wings power play carried over and Weyburn made good on it with another one-timer, this one from Cole Dekoninck. Dekoninck's power-play tally gave the Red Wings the 5-4 victory. 

Weyburn concludes their exhibition schedule with a win, but Estevan has one more game yet to play, welcoming Minot from the NAHL to Estevan on Monday night at 7:30.

WEEKEND NOTES

Weyburn dressed three goalies in two games, with Riley Lamb playing all of Friday night's game and McCloskey and Cody Levesque splitting Saturday. Levesque allowed just one goal on 12 shots through a period and a half.

The only players to score in both games were Hiltz and McChesney, both of whom were the team's leading returning goal scorers. McChesney scored 30 goals in 54 games last year while Hiltz posted 28 in 51. McChesney is the only 30-goal scorer to return from the 2017-18 season.

Kade McMillen finished with three assists in two games, two of which came on the power play. He was one of only two Bruin defensemen to finish the Friday game. Aigne McGeady-Bruce was the other.

Both Jake Heerspink and Bronson Adams of the Bruins sat out Saturday's game and will be forced to miss Monday's game with suspensions. Both were deemed the instigators of the second fight in a stoppage on Friday night at different times in the game, and were hit with automatic two-game bans, which will not extend to the regular season.

This was the first pre-season loss for Estevan in two years, as they had not yet lost this preseason and swept the exhibition schedule in 2017.