NORTHMEN B ROOKIE Adam Hawkins puts his size to good use creating space to roam in front of the Hamilton net in Junior B action at the Tony Rose Memorial Sports Complex on Monday night. Photo/MIKE MALONEY Now four games into their schedule, the MacMaster Pontiac Buick GMC Northmen continue to gel as a team, adding a pair of weekend wins to improve their season record to 3-1.

On Sunday in St. Catharines, the Northmen B squad found themselves rising to the challenge put to them by Spartan late in the game.

Up 4-3 on the strength of goals from Adam Hawkins, Kyle Kallay, Andrew Stoner and Jessie Leitch, Orangeville soon found themselves behind the curve when Spartan notched a pair of goals off the top of three for the lead.

Jeremy Noble's unassisted marker with 11:36 left in regulation time would be enough to keep the Northmen in the hunt, forcing both teams into overtime to resolve the tie.

Spartan would again go up by one early in the extra frame but it was Leitch and Hawkins, each with their second goal of the game in the last two minutes of play, lifting the Northmen to a 7-6 win.

Monday night, it was back home for a date with the Hamilton Bengals.

Still riding the adrenaline high from the night before, Orangeville pressed Hamilton from the opening draw.

Again it was Hawkins setting the pace, spinning like a top through traffic in front of the net and dropping a shot over Bengals goalie Dale Tolman for a 1-0 lead.

Obviously benefiting from a week's practice since the loss to Owen Sound last Monday, the Northmen continued to control much of the game, even when playing shorthanded.

Off the top of two, Aaron McNutt wired a shot from the left side to widen the lead to 2-0.

Getting his second start of the season, Andy Sumka put in his best start this season, making a number of big stops on the Hamilton shooters. Chris Bragger made it 3- 0 for Orangeville with a shot on the pivot crossing the crease.

With the clock winding down on the second, Hamilton capitalized on a delayed penalty call then with their goalie pulled for the extra attacker, added a pair to narrow the gap to 3-2 heading into the third.

Picking up a rebound off a shot by Bragger, Kallay put the Northmen back out front by two with 12:54 remaining to play.

Hamilton again drew within striking range making the most out of a penalty to McNutt just over a minute later.

There would be no Northmen folding though as they toughened up the defence to hold on for a 4-3 win.

For assistant coach Ryan Emilio, there were many positives seen on the floor over the two nights. "We are building on the positives every night. Remember there are a lot new faces and young guys hustling out there. They are starting to mesh together and getting to know each other and are starting to get onto the set system we want them to play into their heads." says Emilio.

With the possibility of one or two changes the roster and the imminent return of veteran Joel Rennie to the lineup Wednesday, he is quite confident that things will only get better.

This weekend will be a great chance to put that system to the test as the Northmen will play a three game home stand. Wednesday evening, it's Guelph stopping into the Tony Rose for their first meeting of the season (results unavailable at press time) then it's back to back games Sunday and Monday to London and Niagara respectively.