The Parkland Rangers and Yellowhead Chiefs are even in their best-of-five quarterfinal series.

Parkland scored three times in the second period en route to a 3-1 win in game one, Thursday in Shoal Lake.

Dru Mushumanski, Rylan Gibbs and Will Munro tallied for the Rangers, while Max Collyer put Yellowhead on the board in the third period.

Parkland’s Brenden Birch-Hayden and Yellowhead’s Jase Wareham both finished the night with 37 saves.

The Chiefs evened the series with a 4-2 win in game two, Sunday in Dauphin.

Ben Roulette scored twice for Yellowhead, with Cole Topham and Foxx McColl adding singles. Kyan Grouette and Carter Zalischuk scored for Parkland.

Nathan Braun had 23 saves in the win, while Birch-Hayden stopped 32 shots.

Rangers head coach Tyler Carefoot said both teams began the series with some jitters in game one.

“But we just wanted to find a way to either tie that period or get out of it not being down and we did that,” he said. “I liked our energy in the first period. A little bit sloppy through the neutral zone. The puck was a little bit of a grenade. We knew Thursday the first goal was going to be very important and we found a way to get it. From there, we didn’t really look back. The momentum was on our side.”

The Rangers also killed off a two-man Chiefs power play in the first period and a four-minute power play in the third.

On Sunday, the Rangers came out flat, allowing the game’s first two goals by the 10:35 mark of the first period. Grouette tallied just seven seconds later and the teams traded goals in the second. Roulette’s second of the game midway through the third iced it for Yellowhead.

Carefoot said Yellowhead is a team that will beat you on hard work.

“That’s their biggest asset. And we knew we had to match that. We had to match their will. We had to match their compete. And tonight we didn’t do that. It was evident. They were all over us,” he said.

After the slow start, the Rangers did make a push in the latter half of the first, but it was not enough.

“We just didn’t have enough guys skating and too many guys were watching. We weren’t tough on pucks. Those scrums inside the blueline, those things have got to get out,” he said, adding the Rangers were not tough enough to play against. “They simply out hustled us and were grittier than us. So we have to hit the reset and it’s a best-of-three now,” he said.

Birch-Hayden gave the Rangers a chance to win in game two, with several big stops.

But the Rangers could not capitalize on their chances when the opportunity presented itself.

“We generated minimal scoring chances. Without those, it’s no recipe for a win,” Carefoot said.

Game three is back in Shoal Lake on Friday at 7:30 p.m. Game four, if needed, will be in Dauphin, Sunday, also at 7:30 p.m.