The Weyburn Red Wings are on a winning streak early in the 2000-01 season, capping their fourth win a row with a come-from-behind victory on Saturday against the Battlefords' North Stars.

The Wings were down 4-1 early in the second period against the North Stars, but they stormed back in the third period to win 7-5 before a boisterous crowd of 837 patrons at the Colosseum.

The win followed a Tuesday night victory when the Wings shaded the Notre Dame Hounds 4-3 at Wilcox.

On Saturday, the Wings fell behind early, as the Stars notched two quick goals before the game was four minutes old, including a short-handed marker.

The Wings first point got on the board later in the opening frame when Jason Vermeulen scored the first goal of a hat trick. But the Stars scored two more before the Wings started their comeback late in the second period.

"The first two periods we didn't have any intensity, and then we played hockey in the third period when we had our backs to the wall," said coach Dwight McMillan.

He didn't think there was an intimidation factor, just that his boys weren't fully into the game at the beginning.

"We worked hard and made better plays in the third period. Before that we weren't making good plays and North Battleford was rushing us," said the coach.

One thing that started to go right for the Red Wings was their power play, as three of the night's seven goals were with the man advantage, including Vermeulen's second goal late in the second period, and his third, the Wings' last goal late in the third which clinched the game.

Casey Vanschagen also had a big game, getting two goals and an assist, while Steve Seghers and Corey Koski potted the other two Wing goals. Koski's goal, at the midway point of the third period, was also the winning goal.

Coach McMillan was happy to see the power play starting to click. "We adjusted after the second period and got the defencemen to carry the puck; that opens up a lot of opportunities," he said.

Some of the heroes of the game for coach McMillan included Vermeulen and goalie Terry Denike, who made some key saves in the third period to keep the Wings in the game.

Vermeulen was ecstatic following the game, as he credited the play of all his team mates for the win.

"It was one of those nights. The first goal I just tipped in, the second one went off a North Stars player, and on the third one Cote fed me a nice pass. The whole team helped; we came out hard (in the third period) and got a quick goal. The momentum switched to our side and everything just clicked for us," he said.

He agreed with coach McMillan's praise of Denike, saying, "Terry always seems to keep us in there. He's one of those clutch goalies."

Another key in the coach's eyes was the line responsible for the tying goal in the third period.

"The line that gave us a lot of life was Curt Corbett, Morgan Buetow and Steve Seghers, who got the tying goal. That was a big goal. They didn't score before that, but they went and made some things happen and got North Battleford rattled. That's always a good thing when you can do that," said McMillan.

The big lesson the Wings can take from this win into the remainder of the season, he added, is the boys showed themselves they can come back from a deficit to win a game, which they will have in their minds the next time they find themselves in that situation.

On Tuesday night, the Wings took a 3-0 lead in the first period, with goals from James Laux, Jason Urski and Vanschagen. Notre Dame scored a pair in the second period before Matt Bothwell scored the Wings' fourth at the midway point.

Notre Dame added one more in the third period, but the Wings were able to hang on for the win. Weyburn notched one power play on the night, and Denike went the distance for the whole game, stopping 22 shots.

Weyburn is about in the middle of the pack in the league overall for success on the power play, while for penalty-killing Weyburn is third overall behind Flin Flon and Melville.

The win solidifies Weyburn's hold on second spot in the Sherwood Conference with 20 points, behind conference leader Melville which has 28 points and is on a 10-game win-streak. Saturday's victory also puts Denike in third place among the SJHL's goaltenders, with a goals-against average of 2.68 in 12 games played.

The Red Wings played at Lebret on Tuesday night, and will take on the Yorkton Terriers tonight. They will host the La Ronge Ice Wolves on Friday night at the Colosseum, with game time at 7:30 p.m., and will then travel to Wilcox on Sunday night to take on Notre Dame.