After a nervous start to their series, the Kootenay Ice settled things down and head to Moose Jaw tied 1-1 with the Warriors.

The Ice dropped their Eastern Conference quarterfinal opener 4-0 in Friday night, then scored a bounce-back 5-2 win Saturday that needed a couple of empty-netters to put away.

"There were jitters on Friday night, and we responded nicely and played a really good hockey game (Saturday) until the third period when we got away from some of the things we were doing well," said Kootenay head coach Kris Knoblauch. "But when they pushed back and got their breaks, we bent but we didn't break."

A day after being outscored 3-0 in the first period, the Ice put together a fine opening frame Saturday by outshooting Moose Jaw 12-3 and exiting with a two-goal lead.

"That's the way we've got to play: we outworked them and out-hit them," said Ice captain Brayden McNabb, who had a goal and two helpers in the win.

"We got pucks behind their D and shots on (Thomas Heemskerk). He's a good goalie, we just need to get traffic in front of him."

After an early Matt Fraser penalty was killed off, he wound up making Moose Jaw pay for its first discretion six minutes in. Kootenay had worked the puck around the Warriors' zone when McNabb fed Fraser with a cross-slot feed and the winger threw the puck into the open net.

A McNabb powerplay blast from the point made it 2-0 at 15:02, timing it to coincide with a moving Drew Czerwonka screen atop the crease.

"I put my head up at the last second and saw him there, and I just wanted to rip it and it was lucky enough to go in," said McNabb. "That was a great screen by Drew - that doesn't go in if he's not there."

The Ice started the middle frame shorthanded, but wound up outshooting the Warriors. Pressure from Czerwonka and Max Reinhart turned into a Reinhart chance through the slot at 58 seconds, and he made no mistake.

The Ice brought that 3-0 lead with them into the final frame, and the home side seemed to have in the bag.

Two minutes in, however, Quinton Howden batted in his own rebound to put the visitors on the board.

Four minutes later, the Warriors' Dylan McIlrath took a charging major that should have sealed his club's downfall.

Jesse Ismond had to be helped off the Ice after McIlrath left his feet on a hit in front of the timekeepers' box. His fourth penalty of the game, McIlrath was shown the gate, to be followed soon after by assistant coach Trevor Weisgerber.

But instead of burying the Warriors by converting on the major power play, at the tail-end they found themselves skating 4-on-4. Collin Bowman's cross-slot pass found Spencer Edwards all kinds of alone at the left post, and he scored.

"I won't lie. You get a five-minute power play, we expect to score one at least," said Fraser. "We didn't really generate much there, but we capitalized early on in the game so that took a bit of pressure off."

Ismond did not return, and his prognosis for the rest of the series won't be known until he completes a concussion test.

"I sure hope he's alright because we'd miss him awfully," said Knoblauch. "He had a very strong game tonight, a bounce-back where I didn't think he was very good on Friday. He was outstanding and a big part of our success early in the game."

With a little over eight minutes left, Nathan Lieuwen took a shot off the mask. The puck then bounced off the endboards and dangerously back through the front of the net, but it was cleared away.

Lieuwen finished with 18 saves, the same number as the night before, but with a W to go along with it.

"Louie was a lot more composed tonight," said Knoblauch. "He handled the puck really well, the rebounds weren't there and he made some big saves. There were a lot of saves that he made look easy where it goes off the shoulders; that's just a goalie in good position and very confident, not going down early."

Joe Antilla gave Ice fans the sigh of relief they'd been looking for all period when he scored into an open net at 19:04.

Brock Montgomery doubled their pleasure scoring from his own goal line with a second left, Fraser in the box and Heemskerk again on the bench.

"I think the guys that needed to step up stepped up. I think the leadership group on our team has been strong all year and I don't think we saw that (Friday)," said Fraser. "Also I think the role players all played a big part in it, chipping pucks in and chipping pucks out. Monty had a real good game (Saturday) and it was nice to see him get that goal there at the end."

On Friday night, the Ice opened the playoffs with one of their worst opening frames of the year.

Moose Jaw's Andrew Johnson opened scoring less than four minutes in, pouncing on a failed clear attempt that took a favourable bounce off the end glass.

Shortly thereafter, Howden fired the puck in from the top of the right circle.

He extended the lead by scoring seven seconds into a Moose Jaw kill; he broke away after scooping McNabb's behind-the-back pass at the Warriors' blueline.

It became 4-0 at the four minute mark of the second after a backchecking John Neibrandt blew a tire and Jesse Paradis swooped in to beat Lieuwen on a breakaway. The big goalie was pulled in favour of Brett Teskey, but he returned five minutes later after an apparent Ice goal was waved off.

Brendan Hurley got a piece of Montgomery's high shot through the slot and the puck wound up behind Heemskerk. Hurley took a peak behind him to confirm that the ref was pointing at the net before celebrating, but somewhere between there, a quick conference with officials and a call up to the video review booth, it was nullified for high-sticking.

The series resumes with Game 3 Tuesday night in Moose Jaw.