Box Score

Eric Galbraith scored his second goal of the night to tie the game with 32 seconds left in the third and Justin Kirsch was the overtime hero as the Mount Royal Cougars beat the Regina Cougars 5-4 on Friday night in Canada West men's hockey action.

Devin Gannon also scored for Mount Royal and Dalyn Flette turned aside 21 shots for the victory. Brock Appleyard and Cody Fowlie both found the back of the net for Regina, while Troy Hunter scored a pair. Lucas Gore stopped 29 shots in a losing effort.

Regina opened the scoring just over seven minutes into the first period. Ian McNulty snapped a perfect pass to Appleyard, who fired it high glove side on Flette for his eighth goal of the year. But Mount Royal came right back just 17 seconds later, with a goal off the stick of Galbraith.

The back-and-forth action continued throughout the period with both goalies making some key saves, including a nice pad stop by Gore on a partial breakaway by Galbraith. With 1:12 remaining in the first, Hunter took a rolling puck over the blue line and lofted a high shot on net that beat Flette over the shoulder to give Regina a 2-1 lead. But once again Mount Royal marched back down the ice and with only nine seconds left on the clock, Gannon slipped the puck past Gore to tie the game 2-2 heading into the second.

Regina spent the majority of the first 10 minutes of the second period on the power play. Despite three chances with the man advantage including two back-to-back, they couldn't beat Flette. With less than five minutes left in the period Fiddler snuck past the Regina defence and came in on a breakaway. He made no mistake, firing the puck in off the crossbar to put Mount Royal up 3-2.

Mount Royal began the third on the power play, but it was Cody Fowlie who came in on a shorthanded breakaway for Regina. Flette stopped the initial shot but couldn't hold on to the puck and it trickled through into the net. Regina scored the go-ahead goal exactly halfway through the third, as Hunter picked up his second of the game jamming home a loose puck in front of the net. But as they did all night, Mount Royal tied the game in the dying minutes. With Flette pulled for the extra attacker and 32 seconds left, Galbraith potted his second goal of the night to send the game to overtime.

Both teams had chances early in overtime, but with 19.5 seconds on the clock Kirsch took a hard shot on net. Gore got a piece of it, but not enough as it skipped into the net to give Mount Royal the 5-4 victory.

Mount Royal improves their record to 7-11-1, while Regina falls to 9-10-2 on the season.

The two teams will hit the ice once again tomorrow night to cap off the weekend series. Puck drop at The Co-operators Centre is at 7 p.m.