In a season filled with twists and turns, the Albert Lea boys’ hockey team added another one Tuesday.

The Tigers (17-8-0, 8-1-0) needed to beat Mayo in order to keep their conference title hopes alive, and they did so, coming through with a 5-2 victory Tuesday over the Spartans.

Now with a Mayo win over Century Thursday, Albert Lea would claim a share of the Big Nine Conference crown.

The prospects of such a scenario didn’t look completely plausible after the Tigers lost 5-2 to the Spartans Saturday in Rochester in a nonconference game.

The Tigers wasted little time in trying to redeem themselves. Just 1 minute, 35 seconds into the game, Jordan Prescher-Smerud put Albert Lea up 1-0 on a shot from the slot.

The Tigers added two more goals in the period, one from Robert Peterson at 6:59 and another from Tyler Brackey at 16:12 to take a commanding 3-0 lead.

“We jumped on them right away,” said Albert Lea senior captain Mike Falk. “If you look at some of our big wins this year that’s what we’ve done. We haven’t given them breathing room and that’s what we did tonight.”

The Tigers pressured the Spartans in their own end early on and controlled the puck in their zone throughout the first period.

“We felt we needed a little redemption,” said captain Jordan Prescher-Smerud. “Saturday night we didn’t bury our chances. Me and (Tyler) Prihoda had a lot of chances Saturday night. I feel we didn’t play to the best of our capabilities and that’s one of the main reasons why we lost. Tonight we came out there and played the way we should.”

Prescher-Smerud scored three goals in the game, including a breakaway goal in the second period that gave Albert Lea a 4-1 lead. Prescher-Smerud extended the lead to 5-1 in the third period, but Mayo responded with a power-play goal 1:37 later.

The Spartans’ power play was destructive Saturday against the Tigers, registering three goals, but Albert Lea shut it down Tuesday, allowing just the one goal in six chances as the Tigers ended Mayo’s seven-game winning streak.

“We just executed better,” Tigers head coach Roy Nystrom said. “I think for the most part we played pretty well and kept them to the outside pretty well. Then when they did get in there tight we had people in there that picked up guys.”

The game went back and forth with both teams recording 40-plus shots. Albert Lea finished with 48 shots while Mayo had 42.

The Spartans have one remaining game and will play Century Thursday to determine the Big Nine title. Mayo has already defeated the Panthers twice, but Century is unbeaten in its last seven games.

“It was a nice win and takes us into the playoffs with a full head of steam,” Nystrom said.

Albert Lea 5, Mayo 2

Mayo 0 1 1 — 2

Albert Lea 3 1 1 — 5