The Kootenay Ice ushered in 2011 the same way they exited 2010: with a couple more points in the standings.

The Ice dumped the visiting Swift Current Broncos 5-3 on New Year's Eve, then held on to defeat the host Edmonton Oil Kings 2-1 on Sunday afternoon.

"It was nice that we ended and began the New Year with a win," said assistant coach Todd Johnson.

"It's obviously nice to see when teams we're going against lost their first game of the New Year. It's all positive."

The Ice improved to 26-11-1-2, good for second in the Western Hockey League; Red Deer has lost twice since the calendar changed, while Medicine Hat and Saskatoon also dropped their first games of 2011.

In Edmonton on Sunday, Nathan Lieuwen was 40 seconds away from a shutout when Michael St. Croix tucked the puck in at the post on a scramble.

Lieuwen had been at his best in the final period, earlier preserving Kootenay's two-goal lead by getting from post to post to block Jordan Hickmott's one-timer.

"In the third period, I thought they made a really good push against us and he made all the important saves and timely saves that we needed," said Johnson.

Although it wasn't their best team game, Johnson said it was good under the circumstances.

"The bus ride is a long one, and we went to the Oilers game the night before which makes it a long day, but it's nice to see that our guys played hard after such a long day," he said. "It's difficult to do that. If it's closer to playoffs, we probably wouldn't do that but it's good team building for us. It was their decision, and it's nice to see that they came up with a win after deciding to do that."

Johnson said the second period was Kootenay's best on Sunday.

It was during that frame they scored both of their goals.

Brayden McNabb connected on a power play 41 seconds in, shooting from the point through a maze of players. It lengthened the captain's points streak to 11, the longest active string in the league.

The Ice pulled ahead 2-0 at 17:14. Edmonton goalie Jon Groenheyde had gone behind the net to play the puck, but mishandled it. Max Reinhart swooped in and passed out to Matt Fraser, who scored from a sharp angle before Groenheyde could get back in place.

The former Kamloops Blazers netminder finished the afternoon with 23 saves, the same number as Lieuwen.

The Ice will play Edmonton two more times in the next two weeks, and Johnson said it will take a much better team game to beat them again.

"The game was close. It was 2-0 going into the third period and without Nathan playing as well as he did in the third period, it might have been a different story."

It was Military Appreciation day at the rink on Sunday, and the Oil Kings' jersey had a camouflage motif.

"The crowd there was bigger than normal, and I thought (Edmonton) played well as a team," said Johnson. "You could see why they've been winning so many games lately. If they keep doing that, I imagine they'll put themselves in a good position for the playoffs."

Going into Sunday's game, Edmonton had gotten points in 12 of their previous 15 games.

On Nov. 23, they were six games below .500 and second-last in the conference.

Even after Sunday's loss, the Oil Kings are now two games above even and in a playoff spot.

As it happens, Edmonton is one point behind the Broncos. Friday's game in Cranbrook marked their 10th of 11 road games in a row.

Johnson said Swift Current was obviously hurting, and anxious to get back home.

"You could see the two nights later, their first game at home against Saskatoon and they won," he said. "Against a team that is banged up and playing so many on the road, I think we took advantage of that. We played hard all the way through - we probably could have had a few more goals if it wasn't for Friesen. He came to play, for sure."

Mark Friesen made 43 saves for Swift Current, while Kootenay's Brett Teskey had to turn aside just 11 to collect his seventh win.

Swift Current had three separate one-goal leads in the game, starting with the one Reece Scarlett gave them by opening scoring at 13:01.

McNabb tied it going into the intermission with a powerplay goal. In the second frame, Adam Lowry scored on either side of Fraser's mid-period marker, but Kevin King shoveled in the remnants of a coast-to-coast play to tie the game for the last time.

In the third, Reinhart scored in the opening minute and Fraser scored in the final to wrap up scoring.

The Reinhart-Fraser-Drew Czerwonka unit combined for a seven-point, plus-seven performance on Friday.

"They've been strong the last few games for us, with (Max) skating the way he is, and you add how physical Czerwonka and Fraser can be and the way Fraser can shoot the puck - the line should be successful when you look at it on paper, and it's nice to see those guys produce for us," said Johnson.