The University of Regina men's hockey team's comeback came up short on Friday night, as the Cougars netted two third-period goals but fell 4-3 to Mount Royal University in Canada West action at The Co-operators Centre.

Jesse Lees, Sebastien Pare, Matthew Brown and Cam Maclise scored for Mount Royal, which improves to 14-6-1 with the win. Ian McNulty scored twice for the Cougars and Tyson Predinchuk added a single.

A fast-paced opening period provided a number of chances at each end of the ice, and MRU struck first at the 4:51 mark. Lees took a feed from Jamal Watson and outwaited a Cougar defender before firing a wrist shot from the point that beat a screened Andy Desautels to open the scoring. Canada West's leading scorer Connor Rankin also assisted on the first-year defender's sixth of the season.

Mount Royal added to their lead with 3:06 remaining in the period, as Pare broke in on a two-on-one and ripped a wrist shot that hit the post and went in past Desautels' blocker. Luke Simpson and Grant Baker earned assists on the goal.

Regina replied before the end of the first period after an MRU defender got an elbow up on J.J. Coleshaw. Desautels came out of his net for an extra attacker on the delayed penalty and the Cougar attack produced a few good chances before eventually beating Wyatt Hoflin. Cody Fowlie collected a rebound along the boards after a point shot from Brody Luhning and spotted McNulty in front, finding him with a low pass that McNulty tipped through the legs of Hoflin for his sixth goal of the season.

The visitors added to their lead in the second period, as Brown deflected a point shot under the pad of Desautels, and Maclise potted a rebound over top of the sprawling netminder later in the frame to put MRU up 4-1 after 40 minutes.

The Cougars struck just 1:41 into the final frame, as a point shot from Luhning hit an MRU player in front and sat free in the slot. McNulty flipped a low shot towards Hoflin, who was screened by his own player and let it slip through his pads. Tyler Bell also picked up a helper on the goal.

Regina scored again before the midway mark of the period, as a great individual effort from Colton Sparrow was stopped by Hoflin but the rebound sat free in front. Predinchuk swooped in and put a backhand right under the crossbar for his third of the season, making it a one-goal game.

The Cougars pulled Desautels in search of the equalizer, but a last-second effort was knocked away by Watson to seal the MRU win.

Hoflin stopped 22 Cougar shots for his second win of the season while Desautels made 17 saves at the other end of the rink.

The Cougars (3-17-1) will look to earn the split on Saturday afternoon, with puck drop scheduled for 3 p.m. at The Co-operators Centre.