The University of Regina men's hockey team was topped by the hometown British Columbia Thunderbirds 3-1 in Canada West action on Friday night.

The Cougars struck first, thanks to Sanfred King's first of the season, but UBC stormed back with three unanswered thanks to Nick Buonassisi, Anthony Bardaro and Brandon Underwood.

Troy Hunter and Zach McPhee assisted on King's goal, which came at the 17:13 mark of the first period and put the Cougars up 1-0. From that point on, Matt Hewitt was solid, not letting anything past.

The Cougars lead last almost five minutes into the second period, when Buonassisi took a feed from Bardaro and beat Dawson MacAuley to even the score. Bardaro scored seven minutes later off assists from Neil Manning and Luke Lockhart to put the Thunderbirds up for good, and Underwood added an unassisted marker with MacAuley on the bench to seal the deal.
MacAuley stopped 29 shots in his fourth start of the season. His counterpart, Hewitt, was only tested with 17 shots on the night and he stopped 16 of them.

The loss marks the sixth consecutive for the Cougars, who hope to bounce back on Saturday night against the same UBC team. Puck drop is slated for 7 p.m. PDT.