After 19 losses in a row, it could have been easy for the Norman Wild, leading their final regular season game of the Manitoba Female Midget Hockey League 1-0 against Brandon, to lose hope when their opponents tied it up with seven minutes left in the game.

But they didn't.

"They dug deep, went out and scored another goal," said head coach Jaymie Leary, then kept it out of their zone until the last 10 seconds, when Brandon earned a faceoff in the Wild's zone.

"The girls kept control," said Leary. "We were nervous on the bench."

Dayna Hayes of The Pas scored the first game-winner in the team's history, putting the puck in with 2:41 to play in their 20th game of their inaugural season, assisted by Thompson's Brianne Hanson and Cassidy Bertholet of The Pas. The goal was Hayes' first of the season, but for the team, it was undoubtedly the biggest.

"The girls were so excited," said Leary, and she and fellow coach Stephen Vandenberghe told them to remember that feeling - and also how they got there.

"They played the whole game," she said. "They competed the whole three periods. They actually worked, I hadn't seen that yet. Maybe it was just being focused."

Chanelle Arthurson of Gillam opened the scoring with 13:38 left in the second period, also on her first goal of the season, assisted by Thompson's Laurel Nychyporuk and Gillam's Pamela Mcleod.

Cassandra Hickes of Thompson picked up the win in net, turning aside 32 Brandon shots.

"I've seen a huge improvement in our goaltending," said Leary.

The coaches were also pleased to see that the players finally bought into their advice on how to score, after having chances in their previous three games on the weekend - an 8-0 loss to the Yellowhead Chiefs, a 6-0 loss to Central Plains and an 11-0 loss to the Pembina Valley Hawks - but failing to bury the puck.

"Those two goals were just because there was a second man going to the net," said Leary.

Though they likely didn't want to wait this long for a win, if there was only going to be one in the regular season, it couldn't have come at a better time.

"We travel to Brandon this weekend to battle for fourth place," said Wild manager Maxine Larway. "They play in Shilo Friday night at 8 p.m. and Sunday morning at 10:30 in Wawanesa."

Whichever team wins the two-game series (total points, with goals for and against as a tiebreaker) will then move on to the playoffs to take on the first-place team in a best-of-three series.

"I have every faith that we can compete," said Leary, noting that the team usually plays tough defence, but victimizes itself with breakdowns that skilled opponents can convert into goals.

Keeping the season alive will require an all-out effort from every player, says Leary.

"If one of our players isn't performing, we really feel it," she said.