The Diamond Energy Female Midget AAA Wildcats worked a weekend split with the Regina Rebels in yet another gritty playoff atmosphere between the two teams.

After the two teams split in their meeting in the provincial capital in Week 2 of the season, Swift and Regina faced off at Fairview West.

Saturday saw the Wildcats fall 4-3 to the Rebels.

Swift Current jumped out to the early 2-1 lead after 20 minutes with goals from Brynne Doerksen and Kate Wagner.

But the second period wasn't too kind to the Wildcats, who surrendered two unanswered goals to the Rebels.

Regina scored with two minutes left in the third period to make it 4-2, a score that nearly ended without a response from the Wildcats... until Taylor Lind scored five-hole on a short-handed breakaway.

Lind nearly netted a second-straight goal on the penalty-kill, but it wasn't to be, as the Wildcats dropped the first match of the weekend.

"I didn't think we were very good - we found a way to make it close, and we stuck with it till the end," said Wildcats head coach Terry Pavely. "We didn't break out very clean, and we played a lot in our end, but we did a much better job of containing them to the outside."

Amaya Giraudier made 26 saves on Saturday, while Harper Davey got the start, and shone, on Sunday.

Davey flashed the leather en route to a 41-save performance, and a 5-2 Wildcats win.

Swift Current again posted a two-goal first period, as Brooklyn Rublee and Sara Kendall found the back of the net.

Rublee put the Wildcats up 3-0 in the second period - the first of three Wildcats goals in the middle frame.

After Crystal Wale made it 4-0 on the powerplay midway through the frame, Rublee completed the hat-trick to close out scoring in the second.

However, Pavely says the final 20 minute stretch was a tough one for his team.

"I thought today for the first 40 minutes we were pretty darn good. We were up 5-0 and we didn't come to play in the third period, and get out-shot 22-6," said Pavely, as the Rebels added a pair of goals in the final ten minutes of regulation.

"That's where we need to step on the gas pedal and make sure we finish teams off. For us, we were fortunate we had a big enough lead that it was never in jeopardy, but we've still got to find a way to play 60 minutes," he said. "That's kind of been a struggle for us - we have some really good stretches, and we have some really bad stretches, and we need to find a way moving forward to continually get a little bit better, and find a way to put more of a complete game together in all aspects."

Meanwhile for his rookie forward Rublee, the game checked two boxes for the 16-year-old Kindersley product, as she scored her first Female Midget AAA goal, to go along with the first-ever hat trick at the level.

"I'm just pretty pumped to be here - it's really exciting, first hat-trick here, just glad to be here," said Rublee, who credited the team's ability to bounce back from Saturday's loss as a contributing factor for her hat trick.

"We had some bumps (Saturday), and we kind of worked together, picked it up, and I think our team really made that possible - we worked hard."

"She did a good job of going to the net, moving her feet, and we talked to her about that (Sunday) morning," added Pavely. "And good for her, she got rewarded today for doing the things we asked her to do. And, if you get to the front of the net, playing with a kid like Lind, she's going to find you. A couple of those goals Taylor made good passes, and obviously Rublee was able to bury them."

The Wildcats move to 3-4-0-1 through eight league games, and face another tough test this coming weekend, as they're on the road against the 4-4-1-1 Prince Albert Northern Bears.

Prepping for that weekend set will consist of a couple key areas in practice.

"Well one, we're going to have to work on our D-zone coverage and our specialty teams," said Pavely. "I thought our penalty-kill was pretty good today, but our powerplay's got to get better, and it's got to get better under pressure. When we have time we're pretty good with the puck, but we struggle a little bit with teams that pressure us, and they pressured us all weekend, and we spend a lot of time retrieving pucks in our own zone, rather than playing in the offensive zone."

The Wildcats and Northern Bears face off this Saturday at 7 p.m. from Art Hauser Center in Prince Albert. Sunday's game has a 1 p.m. faceoff, and can be listened to live on The Eagle 94.1.