It's tough when you have nothing really left to play for having already clinched a regular season title, especially when you still have three weeks left of regular season play.
That's exactly the position the Soo North Stars were in when they took to the ice in Great North Midget League action over the weekend against the Valley East Cobras.
By way of their victories over the Sudbury Nickel Capitals the previous weekend, the North Stars clinched the GNML title with six games left on their schedule, including the two against Valley East.
Despite not playing their best, the North Stars managed to come away from the series with Valley East with a pair of 4-3 victories on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon at the John Rhodes Community Centre.
Saturday night saw a penalty filled affair as the two teams racked up nearly 100 minutes in penalties in a chippy game that saw very little flow.
Valley East got on the board early as Justin Levac scored 2:36 into the opening period but the North Stars then reeled off four straight goals to take a 4-1 lead.
Paul Dupont scored less than a minute after Levac to tie the game at one. Brad Dicandia then scored at 12:51 to put the North Stars ahead. Michael Quesnele then scored back-to-back goals at 14:10 of the first and 6:25 of the second period to give the North Stars a 4-1 lead.
Late in the second period the Cobras inched closer as Justin Villeneuve scored at 17:04 to cut the North Star lead down to 4-2.
Ryan Mathes scored at 12:47 of the third period to cut the lead to 4-3 but the Cobras could not get the equalizer as they dropped the 4-3 decision. Ryan Dube picked up the victory in goal for the North Stars.
Sunday afternoon's game was not as penalty-filled as the series opener, but still had its share of chippiness.
The North Stars looked as though they were going to take control of the game near the midway point of the first period when Jake McClelland and Zac McNally scored 45 seconds apart to give the locals a 2-0 lead. Both goals came on the man-advantage.
In the second period, Valley East took advantage of some mistakes by the North Stars and battled back to take the lead as they scored three times in under three minutes to take a 3-2 lead.
Mathes opened the Valley East scoring at 8:48 when he potted a power play goal past North Stars goaltender Travis O'Brien. Robert Seguin then potted another past O'Brien at 10:37
Then, at 11:08, Joel Villeneuve scored his third goal of the season to give Valley East the lead and prompting North Stars coach Mike Hall to call a timeout and rally his troops.
The move seemed to work as McNally got the North Stars back into the thick of things as he tied the game at 3-3 at 15:55.
Nick Minardi, playing in his first game following a four-game suspension, put the North Stars ahead to stay when he beat Valley East netminder Andrew Gingras at 9:04 of the third period to cap off the 4-3 victory for the North Stars.
Following Sunday's game, Hall said that his team has gotten away from what has made them so successful this season and that consistency is a big thing for his team heading into the GNML playoffs.
"We're getting away from what's made us successful and that's defensive zone coverage," Hall said. "We need to find a way to be more consistent as well."
"This weekend we didn't finish (offensively) and we need to find a way to capitalize," Hall continued. "You've gotta be good to be lucky and lucky to be good and a couple of times (Gingras of Valley East) made some key saves. We fired probably close to 90 shots at him in two games and he played well."
Hall hoped the two tight wins put a scare into his club as he hopes the team's work ethic improves in time for the playoffs.
"At times we didn't work hard enough for loose pucks," Hall said. "Hopefully these two games put a scare into (the players). Not working enough is what got us into trouble. The playoffs are a whole different story. You lose three games and the regular season means nothing."
The North Stars do have two things to play for in the last four games of the season. With four wins they will top the GNML league record of most wins in a season while they are also on pace to break the GNML record they set last season of fewest goals against.
Last season's team gave up just 86 goals while this year's team, through 32 games, has given up just 61 and are on pace to give up only 69 goals.
The North Stars will conclude the home portion of their schedule with games against Rayside Balfour on Saturday at 7 p.m. and Valley East next Sunday at 1 p.m. at the Rhodes.