The U18 AAA female Central Plains Capitals spirits are high after back-to-back impressive weekends of hockey. 

The girls were victorious for just the second time in the regular season on Sunday as they defeated the Interlake Lightning 4-1. Head coach Brendan Schaan says winning a tournament in Regina two weeks ago has given the team a confidence boost.

"It feels amazing whenever you get a chance to win. I think the biggest thing for our girls is we finally learned what it feels like to win after going to Regina and having success at that tournament," Schaan continues. "We're finally getting the bounces to go our way, our defence is getting some shots through, and our forwards are doing an awesome job crashing the net and getting some good hockey goals. So, it's finally transpired into some more offence and some more wins, hopefully."

Forward Izzy Colatruglio was named the league's Player of the Week for her three-point outing against the Lightning. The assistant captain found the back of the net once and dished out two assists, and is now tied for sixth in points among defencemen across the entire league.

Colatruglio was also vital in Regina, picking up four points in five games, including both of the Capitals' goals in the gold medal game to lead the team to a 2-1 victory. Schaan says their performance in that tournament could be the turning point to their season.

"Whenever you go out of province and find success, it's a reminder of how good the calibre of hockey that we play is. Regina and Swift (Current) came to our tournament at the beginning of the year, and they were both very impressive. It was nice to go up against them and find success. We worked as hard as we could and built some good habits. It was great to come back to regular season play and continue that success."

With two home games on the schedule this weekend, this will be a good time for the Capitals to make up some ground in the standings but Schaan notes they can't get too ahead of themselves.

"We beat Pembina Valley at the start of the season (and just beat Interlake), so they're both very winnable games. We have to make sure we don't take them lightly. With us being successful and finding the net and scoring, it comes with hard work. Nothing has been given to us this year, so whenever we step on the ice, we have to work as hard as we possibly can to have success."

The head coach adds when they play well defensively they can compete with every team in their league.

"D-zone will win us games time and time again. I think last game against Interlake, we held them down to 20 shots, which is one of the best for us. Going back to our win against Pembina Valley, I think it was 25 or 30 (shots). Keeping the shots down for the opposition is definitely a key for us if we want to find success but we're also finally getting some shots through on the offensive side, which is resulting in goals. Those are the two big things we're hammering down."

The Capitals begin their home stand with a game on tonight at 7:45 against the Pembina Valley Hawks, followed by an afternoon bout tomorrow at 3:00 against the Interlake Lightning. Both games will go down at the BDO Centre.