Box Score Box Score

Offence was on display on Saturday as the University of Regina's men's hockey team defeated Mount Royal for the second consecutive night in a 6-5 win at Flames Community Arena in Calgary.

Ward Szucki broke out with his first career hat trick for the Cougars, while John Sonntag and Ryan Sawka both had a goal and two assists to notch three-point nights. Troy Hunter scored the other goal for the U of R, with second-year goalie Andrew Hayes registering 32 saves in the victory.

Billy Marshall, Mike Brown, Jeremy Burns, Spencer Asuchak, and Tyler Jewitt replied for Mount Royal.

The victory improves Regina's record to 11-9-2 and clinches a playoff berth for the Cougars, who will play in the Canada West postseason for the first time since 2009.

Though Mount Royal's first shot didn't come until past the nine-minute mark of the first period, it gave the home team the first goal of the game. Marshall fired it on net from an acute angle along the right boards and it snuck past Hayes for his third of the season.

Sawka, who has missed large portions of the season with a nagging injury, evened the game six minutes later with a nice individual effort, beating Mount Royal starter Justin Cote to score his first Canada West goal since Oct. 28, 2011.

Mount Royal regained the lead exactly three minutes after Sawka's goal, as Brown scored on the power play to send MRU into the first intermission with a 2-1 advantage.

But Regina took control of the contest with three goals in the first half of the second period. Szucki and Hunter scored in the span of 1:35 early in the middle frame, with Hunter's coming on the power play. The Cougars added another power play goal just shy of the midway mark of the second when Sonntag's shot from the point through a screen eluded Cote and gave the U of R a 4-2 advantage.

Mount Royal got one back with just over five minutes left in the second, when Burns pounced on a rebound to make it 4-3 for Regina heading into the second intermission.

Szucki restored the two-goal lead after scoring from a bad angle just under seven minutes into the third period, and completed the hat trick on his next shift after beating Cote to the glove side to put the Cougars up 6-3.

Szucki's third of the game also stood as the game-winning goal, as Mount Royal got power play goals from Asuchak and Jewitt to pull to within one goal with four minutes left but couldn't come up with the equalizer.

Mount Royal was 3-for-7 on the power play and outshot Regina 38-36 on the night, while the U of R had just three power play opportunities but scored on two of them.

The U of R will now prepare for a home-and-home next weekend against Saskatchewan, as the two teams will meet in Regina on Friday and in Saskatoon on Saturday. After that, the Cougars will wrap up the conference schedule with a pair of road games at Alberta on Feb. 1 and Feb. 2 and at home against Manitoba on Feb. 8 and Feb. 9.