The Kootenay Ice came out of their Saskatchewan road trip with five out of a possible six points, after dropping a 6-5 OT decision to the Moose Jaw Warriors followed by a 7-3 thumping of the Brandon Wheat Kings.

The Ice took a 3-2 OT win against the Regina Pats earlier in the week that kicked off their first of three games in four nights on the road in the prairie province.

"Overall, I thought it was a great weekend. To get five out of six points against three good hockey teams, I thought it was very good, especially the way our road trip started," said Ice head coach Kris Knoblauch, referencing the snowstorm the team had to drive through to get to Saskatchewan.

It was a shooting gallery on Friday night as the Warriors snatched victory out of the jaws of the Ice in the final minute, scoring the game-tying goal to send the contest into overtime.

The extra frame only lasted for two minutes and thirty-three seconds until Andrew Johnson broke the tie and scored to lift Moose Jaw 6-5 over the Ice.

The game started with a frenetic pace, as both teams lit the goal lamp for five goals in the opening period; the Warriors tallied three while the Ice responded with two.

Ice forward Eric Benoit scored on a shorthanded effort at 7:29, but Kenton Miller responded on the powerplay just before the halfway mark.

Sam Reinhart put the Ice in the lead just over a minute later on the man-advantage, but Moose Jaw again responded with Johnson's first of the night. Eric Arnold scored with three minutes remaining in the first period to put the Warriors ahead.

However, the Ice scored the lone goal in the second period on an effort from rookie Jon Martin, who shoveled away at a loose puck in front of Spencer Tremblay to score his first of the night.

Martin battled back from getting rocked in the defensive zone corner early in the period when Cody Beach took a run at him.

Jagger Dirk took exception to the hit and the two squared off at centre ice; Dirk got a few shots in, despite giving up half a foot to the Warriors' tough guy.

Martin scored again off another scramble early in the third for his fourth goal of the season, but Kendall McFaull tied up the game ten minutes later.

Brock Montgomery scored on a powerplay with just about a minute to go, giving the Ice a lead going into the final 60 seconds, but the Warriors celebrated 16 seconds later when Joel Edmundson found the back of the net to send the game into overtime.

The Ice were rewarded for their hard work with a 7-3 win the following evening against the Brandon Wheat Kings.

Dirk and Joe Antilla scored late in the first frame to put the Wheat Kings in an early deficit and two goals from Jesse Ismond, along with solo markers from Montgomery and Levi Cable only added to Brandon's woes in the second period.

Ryley Miller managed to answer for the Wheat Kings during the deluge of Ice goals, and while Jens Meilleur and Michael Ferland scored in the third period, the Wheat Kings just couldn't dig out of their hole.

Levi Cable also scored again, making it the rookie's first multiple-goal game all season.

Nathan Lieuwen stood between the pipes for the Warriors contest, turning away 30 shots, while Mackenzie Skapski got the start against the Wheat Kings, making a 33 save effort. In the offensive department, the Ice got 30 shots on net against Moose Jaw and 39 against the Wheat Kings.

The two rookies in Martin and Cable seemed to be one of the main storylines for the weekend, as the fourth line contributed in a large way to both games.

With the club trading away Adam Rossignol and Brendan Hurley, two forwards who played on the third and fourth lines, Knoblauch said it's encouraging to see Martin and Cable elevate their game.

The Ice nearly didn't make it to Saskatchewan, after a 26-hour odyssey saw them overnight in Sparwood while waiting for the Crowsnest Pass to open before taking the long way into the prairies via Radium and Kootenay National Park.

Knoblauch said he's only had one game cancelled in his WHL coaching career two years ago when the Ice were on the road in Prince Albert but couldn't make their next game in Regina due to deteriorating weather conditions.

"It's surprising in all the travel that we do, that more games haven't been canceled," noted Knoblauch.

The two weekend contests were high-octane, high-scoring affairs, and while it doesn't necessarily buck the trend for the Kootenay Ice, the team is playing a solid defensive game lately, which frustrates and exposes the opposition, said Knoblauch.

"I think our offense will come when the opposition gets frustrated," continued Knoblauch. "I think when we play a good team defence and we're doing those little things correctly, the opposition cheats on offense and that's when we capitalize and I think that's why our last two games, I think that sort of sums up how we were scoring our goals."

The Wheat Kings follow the Ice back to Cranbrook for a rematch at the Rec Plex on Tuesday night.

It will be a homecoming for former Ice head coach Cory Clouston, who left the Ice after five years of manning the bench for the AHL and eventually cracked the NHL with the Ottawa Senators.

He was relieved of coaching duties in April last year but hired by the Wheat Kings in August in the off-season before start of the current WHL campaign.