They're baaaaack - the Home Hardware Midget AAA Legionnaires have earned their way into the 2018 edition of the Mac's Midget AAA tournament.

The berth marks the second-straight season reaching the Mac's after what was a 14-year drought for the Legionnaires, last securing a spot in 2003.

"A lot of the boys were really pumped, especially the 17-year-olds, it's a huge tournament to get into," said Lucas Ochitwa, the Legionnaires' captain. "It's one of the most prestigious Midget AAA tournaments in the world, it's awesome."

In what has been an impressive display of parity among the competition in the SMAAAHL this season, the Legionnaires' hopes of reaching the Mac's came down to the past two weekends - a road weekend against the Battlefords Stars, and a home set against the league-leading Saskatoon Blazers, as Ochitwa explains

Swift Current proceeded to smack the Stars 5-0 in both games, splitting with the Blazers in a 5-4 loss and 5-2 victory.

This season the Legionnaires boast an 11-5-0-0 record upon gaining entry into the Mac's, while they owned a 9-5-2-0 mark in 2017.

"This year was a real dog-fight to get in," said head coach Darren Evjen. "If you look at the standings, the top eight teams are all around four to six losses... it was a tough. The schedule we had, we'd only played two teams that were out of playoffs. We had to play really well to get in, and we have a better record than we did last year. It's just a positive, and great opportunity for our players to showcase themselves."

After making the Mac's in 2017 for the first time since most, if not all, of the current team was too young to even stand up on skates, the Legionnaires followed the performance up with the organization's first league playoff berth since the start of the decade.

It's been a long time coming for Swift, and also a sign of things still to come, as evidence of the veteran-fueled resiliency this past month, according to Evjen:

In last year's showing at the Mac's, the Legionnaires worked a 2-1-1 record in the round robin, narrowly missing the playoff round.

Swift lost 9-1 in their opener to the Calgary Buffaloes, battled back from down 5-0 to tie the Cariboo Cougars 5-5, downed the Knights of Columbus Pats 5-2, ending with a 7-2 defeat of the Carolina Jr Hurricanes.

This time around, the Legionnaires have two main improvements they're looking to make.

The first: Finding a rhythm before play gets underway.

"It was pretty overwhelming that first game playing the Calgary Buffaloes, a big crowd, and we got popped hard," said Evjen. "Then, we settled in and played well, and we went 2-0-1. Now our guys know that when the puck drops for Game 1 you have to be ready. You can't feel it out, you've got to dive right into the deep end and get going."

The second: Extend the schedule beyond four games.

"Definitely playoffs, as far as being hungry for something," said Ochitwa, one the Legionnaires' veteran blueliners. "Definitely we have a shot at making playoffs, if not winning the tournament. There's only room for one loss in that tournament, and in reality, you could lose once in all of the round robin, and you still might not make the playoffs. You've got to win as many games as possible when you get in there."

The schedule for the late-December tournament should be released early next month.

Meanwhile, with the relief of clinching a spot in Calgary on Boxing Day, the focus shifts back to the grind of the SMAAAHL schedule.

Yet another tough test awaits the Legionnaires, as they're on the road against the defending-national champion Notre Dame Hounds (7-3-0-1).

"Notre Dame is consistently good. As far how they've been playing this year, they've been wishy-washy as far as standings go," noted Ochitwa. "They go into the Battlefords game, get knocked off by Battlefords. They go into Regina, pop Regina. I just don't think we can take them lightly knowing they lost to Battlefords."

"I think we've got to play them like we went into the Blazers game, thinking they're a top-end team, that they're going to have good players, and that we've got to get up on them and lock it down."

The Legionnaires and Hounds face off November 17 at Duncan McNeill Arena in Wilcox at 5 p.m.