Celebratory whooping echoed up the stairwells from the Ice dressing room this weekend, as the team regained some confidence following victories against the Calgary Hitmen and Spokane Chiefs.

The two wins break their four game losing slide, giving the team four much needed points as the standings race tightens up with 20 games left in the regular season.

Prior to the weekend, the Ice's record hasn't been due to poor play, but the team hadn't been able to find a way to close out some games, noted Ice head coach Kris Knoblauch.

"Those four games, I don't think we played awful, we just found ways to lose games, either through undisciplined penalties or not blocking shots or pucks not getting in deep," he said.

"I think these last two games against Calgary and Spokane, they could've gone either way, but we were doing the little things, a lot of the little things that made us successful in the beginning of the season that we're now doing again."

The Hitmen were whacked with three-tenths of a second left on the clock in Friday night's game, as Sam Reinhart scored his second goal of the night, tipping a shot from Jagger Dirk at the point for a final score of 2-1.

Following their success, the Ice steamrolled into Saturday night's game against the Chiefs, and Dylen McKinlay, with his hat trick, led the team to a 4-2 win to garner some revenge for the previous weekend, where the Ice lost 5-4 in overtime in Spokane.

The weekend also featured the return of captain Drew Czerwonka, who'd been out of the lineup for the last two and a half weeks recovering from an upper body injury, which seemed to add that spark that was missing from their previous four games.

Sitting up in the press box for while recovering was frustrating, but it was good to get back on the ice and contribute towards the win, said Czerwonka, after the Hitmen game.

"Every game I watched, we battled hard," he said. "I'm just proud of the guys in the room tonight. They battled hard, they stuck with it.

"Everyone stuck with it, we did all the little things to make us successful and we won."

Sam Reinhart continued to find the back of the net, opening the scoring early in the first period against the Hitmen, banging in a rebound past Brandon Glover.

The Ice held the one goal lead through the second period, but Hitmen sniper Jimmy Bubnick managed to tie the game by sneaking a shot through Liewuen's five-hole with five minutes left.

However, with time trickling down in the final ten seconds, Dirk held the puck at the blue line while waiting for a shooting lane to open. He picked his spot and fired the puck, which hit Reinhart on it's way into the net.

"I knew the crowd really gave us a hint that time was running out but Dirk still managed to be patient and because of that patience from him we got a lucky one off my knee," said the rookie Reinhart.

Without a doubt, the score would've gone in favour of the Hitmen without the work of Ice stopper Nathan Lieuwen, who turned away 28 pucks as Calgary outshot the hometown team by four.

"I felt great tonight. It was nice for us to go out on a winning note," said Lieuwen. "I think the effort, from beginning to end, was really sharp for us and I think the biggest difference for us tonight was guys sacrificing their body.

"I think Drew [Czerwonka] blocked about five shots for me tonight; he's got a lot of ice bags on him right now so I can't say enough about him."

McKinlay earned himself a hat trick the following night in a 4-2 rout of the Chiefs, as his linemates in Jesse Ismond and Sam Reinhart continued to cause headaches for every Kootenay opponent.

He was all smiles over his three goals and the win after the game.

"First of the career; it feels pretty good," said McKinlay. "Fortunate to get a good bounce on the last one there, but couldn't have got it without the work of my linemates, too, so a good night and a good feeling."

The first period was scoreless in a relatively even affair, but the Chiefs held the upper hand on the shot clock, outshooting the Ice 11-4.

McKinlay drew first blood early in the second, taking a pass from Ismond and beating Chiefs stopper Mac Engel. Ismond beat a Spokane defenseman-who got burned by pinching up too far after an offside face-off-and fed McKinlay in the slot before skating behind the net.

Five minutes later, Spokane celebrated when Mitch Holmberg tied up the game by wiring in a fat rebound in the slot off a point shot while the Chiefs broke into the offensive zone.

McKinlay tallied his second goal with three minutes left in the second frame, beating Engel high in the slot after taking a pass from Ismond on the sideboards at the hash marks.

The one-goal lead wouldn't last in the third period, as the Ice's stingy penalty kill couldn't prevent Brendan Kitchon from tying up the game eight minutes into the frame.

But the Ice struck back three minutes later.

In a shot that Engel would likely want back, Joe Antilla wired the puck on net just past the blue line, which the Chief's netminder gloved, or at least, he thought he had. The puck deflected off his trapper, flipped up into the air and landed on the ice, bouncing into the back of the net.

McKinlay completed his hat trick with two minutes left on the clock, when he shoveled in the puck off a scramble in front of Engel's crease.

The Ice will hit the road for a mid-week game in Edmonton on Tuesday. It's an unusual start time, as the Oil Kings are promoting the CN Hockey Hooky, in which the arena will be filled with Edmonton school students attending the 11:30 a.m. game.