“Fourth would be great for us,” said the second-year Ice Hawk. “The top three have really distanced themselves but if we play our game, we can catch them.”

That task became a little tougher after Saturday’s 7-3 loss to the MacKinnon Division-leading Oakville Blades and a 3-0 loss to Buffalo Monday. That left Milton 14 points back of those top three teams, all separated by just a point. It also left Milton with five losses in their last six games after a promising 12-7-3 start to the season.

“We’ve been playing well,” Basso said. “We just need to stick together as a team and hopefully we’ll get some bounces going our way.”

Basso has had no trouble with the bounces. Even through the team’s recent rough patch, he has continued to produce. He scored twice and set up Jamie Hawkrigg for the other Milton goal Saturday. That extended his point streak, which ended in Monday’s shutout loss, to nine games in which he tallied 10 goals and 15 assists.

The 18-year-old passed on an invitation to try out with the Ontario Hockey League’s Barrie Colts prior to the season and the decision is looking better with each game.

“He’s an exciting kind of player –the kind that can lift you out of your seat,” said a Division 1 scout who took in Saturday’s game.

Basso showed that on his final goal, taking a pass from Curtis Renaud on a two-on-one and putting a beautiful move on Oakville goalie Matt Hache to slip the puck past him. But it’s been Basso’s ability to excel even when he doesn’t have a clean sheet of ice in front of him that has been just as impressive.

“He’s strong, he’s hard on the puck,” said the scout, who has seen the Mississauga native play four or five times over the past couple of years. “You try to knock him off the puck, and even though he’s not that big (6-feet, 185 pounds), it just doesn’t happen that often.”

Basso said there has been more attention from scouts recently but he said that doesn’t concern him when he’s on the ice.

“I try not to think about it. I just focus on my game and I want to help the team,” he said. “But it is my future, so I want to play well.”

Milton’s immediate future, and getting back on track, will be tied to Basso, who has scored in eight of his last 10 games and is just two points shy of the century mark for his junior career.

They’ll also need help from goalies Dillon Branco and Steve Zoffranieri. Zoffranieri stopped 20 shots in the second period alone Saturday to keep Milton in the game. The IceHawks trailed just 3-2 until a goal in the final three minutes gave Oakville a two-goal cushion. The Blades then scored off the opening faceoff in the third to make it 5-2.

“They came at us hard in the second and then they scored 13 seconds in,” said Renaud, who had two assists. “That took the wind out of our sails. We were hoping to get back in it and then they scored right off the bat.”

Renaud, an 18-year-old from Carlisle, is another player hoping to take the college route. Though Basso and Renaud are one-two in team scoring, they rarely play together, though it didn’t show as they executed a third-period two-on-one to perfection.

“We had a bunch of guys out so the lines got mixed up a little,” Renaud said. “It worked out well. We had some chemistry.”

Notes: A 4-2 loss to Vaughan on Friday allowed the Vipers to move past Milton into fourth place. Basso and Ryan Stroz scored for the IceHawks while Dylan Branco stopped 33 shots…Though the IceHawks were the most penalized team in the league at the midway point of the season, Milton took fewer penalties than their opponents in five straight games. That streak ended in Buffalo Monday…Zoffranieri stopped 24 of 26 shots Monday. The last goal was scored into an empty net.