FORT PIERRE — After sweeping a pair from the Mitchell Marlins at the Oahe Expo Center over the weekend, the Pierre Capitals sit atop the SDAHA standings.

All by their lonesome.

The Caps pair of wins — 7-4 in a back-and-forth affair Saturday night and 6-1 in an easier match Sunday — move them to 11-4 in league play, now a full game ahead of the Brookings Rangers, who lost to Huron over the weekend.

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“It’s important to look at the loss column, and we certainly still need some help,” Caps coach Rob Kittay said. “But we’re certainly in a better position than we were heading into the weekend.”

The Capitals would still need help to win the league outright. Because both Brookings and Pierre have four losses, if both won the remainder of their games, the Rangers would take the league title on a head-to-head tiebreaker.

On Sunday the Capitals played a more even game, and opened up a tied game in the second period, extending their lead to 3-1 after two and finishing strong in the 6-1 victory.

Josh Rogers got the Caps on the board unassisted, but the Marlins answered to tie the game at one.

The Capitals then got scoring from all three of their forward lines as they put the game away with five unanswered tallies.

Jacob Parsons scored with assists going to Stephen Bollinger and Max Hanson midway through the second. Andy Zarecky then banged one home in the final minute of the period, assisted by Brandon Heckenlaible and Brian Long.

Rogers scored again all alone just 25 seconds into the third to make it 4-1. Ryan Lauseng would find the back of the net off a feed from Garrett Weber, and Parsons got his second of the game all alone to finish the scoring.

“We got production from all three lines, and that was nice to see,” Kittay said. “We also did a much better job of being ready to play right away. Twice on Saturday night we gave up goals in the first minute, and it’s always hard to dig out of that hole.”

The Marlins scored just 40 seconds into Saturday night’s contest, immediately taking the wind out of the Capital sails. But Rogers, as always, found a way to get his bench back in the game, corralling a puck along the far boards, blowing by his defenders and rifling a wrist shot high on the short side to even the game.

Mitchell inched ahead again on a tap-in powerplay goal, but Rogers would find Brandon Heckenlaible out front in the waning minutes to tie the game at 2.

Mitchell’s Zach Gebhardt again scored in the first minute of the second period to briefly put the Marlins ahead.

The Capitals tied the game on a powerplay goal by Max Hanson, then went ahead again when Hanson converted a breakaway, again beating the Marlins keeper high on the glove side. Bollinger closed out the period with a strong individual effort in front, dancing through a pair of defenders and finding the back of the net.

Zarecky and Rogers added add third period goals — the last assisted by Colin O’Dea, who earned a playmaker with three helpers on the night.

The wins put the Capitals in a strong position to either win the league outright or at least tie for the title. Rushmore is 10-2 on the year, but faces nothing but teams with winning records the rest of the way.

Meanwhile, the Caps return to action over the weekend with two games at Sioux Falls. The Flyers, whose top team left the SDAHA league for the season, are 1-10 on the year.