The University of Regina men's hockey team took down the British Columbia Thunderbirds 5-2 Friday night in Canada West action at The Co-operators Centre in Regina.

Tanner Nagel scored twice and Turner Ripplinger, Conner Chaulk, and Tyler Heidt notched the others as the Cougars never trailed the Thunderbirds and outshot the visitors by a 31-19 margin.

"I thought it was a good hockey game," Cougars' head coach Todd Johnson said. "It was back and forth and I thought it was fast. I thought that we matched them as well as we could and we're fortunate to come out with the win."

Ripplinger's opening goal came on a 2-on-1 opportunity with Ben Duperreault as he kept the puck and sniped it top shelf just past the midway point of the first. Moments later, UBC goalie Rylan Toth turned the puck over to Chaulk who had an open net to push the lead to two.

Nagel extended Regina's lead to three early in the second period after pouncing on a rebound following a Mike Eskra shot. Regina goalie Brandon Holtby kept UBC off the board when he stopped Chris Douglas on a penalty shot, but UBC's Carson Miller eventually broke the goose egg with just a couple minutes to go in the second.

Just a minute into the third, Nagel got credit for a strange one. With Toth pulled for an extra attacker with a delayed penalty coming up to the Cougars, the Thunderbirds misplayed it into their own net to make the score 4-1 for Regina.

Jake Kryski drew the Thunderbirds closer with his fifth goal of the season just a couple minutes later, but Regina's Tyler Heidt finished off a nice passing play that also included Jayden Davis and Tate Coughlin to restore the three-goal lead midway through the final stanza.

The Cougars will face UBC at The Co-operators Centre again Saturday afternoon at 3:00 PM in what will be their last home game of the 2021-2022 Canada West regular season.