The Deloraine Royals have qualified for the semifinals of Hockey Manitoba's Provincial Senior "A" Championship.

The Royals scored five unanswered third period goals and downed the Manitoba Senior Hockey League's Beausejour Beavers 9-2 Sunday night in Portage.

"Up until the third period it was really tight," said Deloraine forward Brad Twordik who scored the first two goals of the game for the Tiger Hills Hockey League champions. "Their goaltender played well and when they got their chances they buried their chances. We had a couple of moments where we just kind of got off the gas pedal a little bit and then they started taking it to us. We've got be smarter than that - especially in a one-and-done situation - you can't take time like that. Hopefully our experience from last year is going to help us in that situation when we go into Winnipeg."

Chris Stelmack, Brendan Young and Cole Murdoch did the goal scoring for the Beavers who kept the Royals in their sights for 40 minutes thanks to some spectacular saves from netminder Chris Bear.

Beausejour was actually inches away from tying the game at 4-4.

Devon Balness' snapshot from the right faceoff circle beat Cody Matthewson but rang off the post just 48 seconds into the final frame.

Deloraine opened the preliminary round with a 5-2 victory over the North Central Hockey champion Grandview Comets on Friday night in Rivers.

"It's definitley nice to stay on the ice and keep going," said Royals forward Cory More when asked about the benefits of play two games on the weekend. "You keep your legs and keep your timing and all that kind of stuff."

Twordik, More and Blaine Jarvis had two goals each while Tanner Waldvogel recorded a hat-trick for the defending provincial champions.

The Royals and their fans know Jarvis and Waldvogel very, very well.

Both were instrumental in leading the Gladstone Lakers to the THHL final and a showdown with Deloraine the past two seasons.

Waldvogel and Jarvis were added to the Royals roster for the provincials in 2014 and again this year.

"It was a little tougher this year." Waldvogel said. "We thought we had a better chance of winning the league this year but, it's good for the league, and we're not going to be able to be play forever. They're a great group of guys to play with so it was a pretty easy decision."

The Royals will meet either the Manitoba Senior Hockey League champion Gimli Wolves or the North Central Hockey League's Minnedosa Bombers in the semifinals on Saturday at MTS Iceplex.

The South Eastern Manitoba Hockey League champion Morden Redskins beat Minnedosa 4-1 Sunday.

The Redskins also went 2-0 in the preliminary round and qualified for the semifinals.