The gap between first place and fourth place is five points with just over three weeks left in the Hanover Tache Junior Hockey League's regular season schedule.

The Red River Mudbugs moved into a tie for second place with the Steinbach Huskies thanks a 7-4 victory over the league leading Springfield Xtreme on Thursday night in St. Jean.

"We knew coming in that this was a big four-point game for us," said Mudbugs coach Mike Funk. "You get late in the season like this and the further you get from first place, you can't spot them any points at this point. We played a tight one last weekend and lost in Oakbank to these guys so we knew we couldn't go down three in the season series and lose the tie-breaker. It was important for us not only to win the game but to win in the fashion we did - it's going to give us help in the goal differential as well."

With the game tied 3-3 after forty minutes, Red River took control midway through the third period thanks to four goals in a five minute span.

"The game plan was just to stay as tight and close to these guys as we could for as long as we could and we did it for two-and-a-half and then it just slipped away," said Xtreme coach Kevin Augustine. "We battled and we'll catch them on a better night. They got us on a tough one tonight but we got them one more time this year."

Matthew Winter had three goals and an assist for the Mudbugs.

Skylar Klassen added a pair and the rest went to Troy Lehmann and Jeremy Anstett.

Riley Thomsen, Matt Lamoureaux, Steven Maslechko and Quinton Prokopec replied for Springfield.

The Xtreme (13-6), who were coming off a thrilling 6-5 overtime victory over Steinbach at the T.G. Smith Centre on Wednesday, lead the Huskies (11-4-1-1) and Mudbugs (12-5) by two points.

The Lorette Comets (9-8-3) are in the hunt.

The defending champions are in fourth place with 21 points followed by the St. Adolphe Hawks (8-8-1) with 17 points; the Grunthal Red Wings (6-11-1) have 13 points and the Mitchell Mohawks (4-12-2) are in seventh spot with 10 points.

Red River has a 6-1 record at the St. Jean Arena and the Mudbugs will play five of their last seven games on home ice.

"We weathered the storm pretty well in the first half of the year with a lot of road games," said coach Funk. "We were sitting right at the top of the league and that's where we wanted to be. We knew what the home schedule looked like on the back half and now it's up to us to take advantage of that. We play well in this barn. We're comfortable here. Our end goal is to get first place in the standings and the road to the championship has to come through here. That's the goal."