The Kootenay Ice confirmed their spot in the playoffs last night, convincingly beating the Tigers 3-1 in Medicine Hat.

On Saturday night, they needed a shootout to dispatch the Lethbridge Hurricanes, after losing 6-4 at home to the Spokane Chiefs on Friday.

That means the Ice finished the weekend with 83 points, one more than the seventh-place Swift Current Broncos can garner. Accordingly, Kootenay gets a coveted x beside its name in the standings.

It also built up a seven-point cushion on Medicine Hat, who is closest to Kootenay in the standings.

“We don’t want to finish sixth and travel to play Brandon or Saskatoon, but more importantly we want to start at home,” said Ice assistant coach Kris Knoblauch. “We haven’t started at home since Mark (Holick) and I have been here, so that’s pretty much the biggest goal. If we could be in second, that would be great, but fourth would be a nice consolation prize.”

Although the Ice were playing their third game in as many nights yesterday, energy was not a problem.

In fact, Knoblauch said they had more energy Sunday than they had the night before in Lethbridge.

“We usually rise to the occasion and whoever we’re playing,” he said. “It’s a long season. I don’t like it, but I don’t blame the players for getting excited to play certain games and not others. As coaches we try to get the most out of everyone each night, but I don’t think anyone was not ready to play (Sunday).”

Dustin Sylvester opened scoring at 5:44, after Kevin King sent him in on a breakaway.

The Ice scored again, on the first shot of the second period, four minutes in. King got the puck over to Steele Boomer who deposited his 24th of the season.

Knoblauch said King played a dominant game in Medicine Hat.

“I don’t know how many times he made a big hit — the opposition got their sticks up on him — but he just played a really gritty game,” said the coach. “When he’s doing that, he puts a little fear in the opposition but also creates a little more room for his line-mates.”

Another King got in on the scoring at 12:49 of the second period. Cranbrook’s Jace Coyle let a powerplay missile go from the point, and Todd Mathews made a blocker save, but Tristan King scored on the rebound.

That was all the Tigers — the second-highest scoring team in the league, with 246 goals this season — could muster.

“Our defence did a really good job of limiting shots to the outside, picking up rebounds and stuff like that,” Knoblauch said. “Also, our forwards were really disciplined where we weren’t giving up odd-man rushes. When the puck was turned over in the offensive zone, they were working hard to get back to get on the defensive side.”

The Ice restored their two-goal lead in the last minute of the second, shortly after Matt Fraser created a turnover by leveling a Tiger. He passed it to Max Reinhart in front, who shot and wound up falling behind the net as the puck went in.

Tyler Bunz stopped 20 of 23 shots for Medicine Hat, while Mathews made 19 saves for his 29th win of the year. The Californian’s victory was sweetened by the third-period announcement that the USA had defeated Canada in Olympic men’s hockey action.

“Everyone heard it. The only one who was excited was Todd,” said Knoblauch. “He can’t really gloat too much. We’ve got 28 other Canadians on this bus, him being the lone American. He might get some support from Dominik Pacovsky, but other than that nobody wants to hear about it.”

On Saturday night, the Ice and Hurricanes did all their scoring in the first period.

Marysville’s Carter Bancks got things going for Lethbridge with a shorthander three minutes in.

Christian Magnus replied with his second of the season 18 minutes in.

“Mags has been working really hard, playing between the third and fourth lines, up and down, and it was nice to see him rewarded,” said Knoblauch.

Neither team struck on 12 power plays; Lethbridge was 0-for-7, failing to capitalize on a two-man advantage in overtime.

“That was one of the longest games that I’ve been part of with Kootenay,” said Knoblauch, who felt Lethbridge played an outstanding game. “They were blocking shots, and we weren’t doing what we usually do.”

Sylvester scored the only goal in the shootout, as Nathan Lieuwen turned aside three Lethbridge shooters to secure the second point.

Lieuwen made 27 saves and improved his record to 10-9-0. At the other end, Linden Rowat turned aside 20 shots.

Friday’s game was a roller coaster ride, with the Ice overcoming a two-goal deficit to take a lead for 26 seconds.

The Chiefs scored on three of their first five shots. Anthony Bardaro, Stefan Ulmer and Kyle Beach tallied for Spokane, and Matt Fraser replied for the Ice in the opening frame.

Kootenay scored three times in the second period: Sylvester, Max Reinhart and Brayden McNabb put the ice up 4-3, but Ulmer tied it late.

Brady Brassart scored the game-winner early in the third, while Levko Koper added an empty-net goal as time expired.

James Reid made 24 saves for the win and Mathews stopped 20.