The University of Regina men's hockey team was defeated by the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds 4-3 Saturday afternoon in a Canada West game at The Co-operators Centre in Regina.

Tian Rask scored the winner for UBC with six minutes to go after chipping in a bouncing puck in front of the Regina crease. The Thunderbirds held on to salvage a weekend split, improve to 12-3-1 on the season, and pull level with Alberta for first place in the Canada West standings.

Chris Douglas, Scott Atkinson, and Jake Kryski also scored for UBC while Ethan Anders got the start between the pipes in his hometown and stopped 25 of 28 Regina shots in the win.

The Cougars, who tied the game on two different occasions, were led by a pair of goals by Tanner Sidaway and one from Ben Duperreault.

The Thunderbirds got out to an early 2-0 lead after goals from Douglas and Atkinson just under three minutes apart midway through the opening period. Sidaway got Regina on the board in the last two minutes of the first after finishing a rebound off a Mike Eskra shot from the point.

Sidaway tied it at 2-2 after he stole the puck in the offensive zone and lasered it top-shelf over Anders, but UBC quickly regained their lead when Kryski got a shot through Holtby just a minute later.

Regina tied it up once again before the second intermission with an impressive effort on the power play. Riley Krane sauced a cross-ice pass to Turner Ripplinger, who caught the puck with his glove before slipping it over to Duperreault for an easy one-timer.

Rask's game-winning goal was the only scoring of the final period. The shot margin was reflective of the competitive and well-played contest, with UBC ending up with a slim 29-28 edge in that category.

UBC will now prepare for a second consecutive road weekend as the Thunderbirds will travel to Calgary to square off with Mount Royal next Friday and Saturday at the Flames Community Arenas.

The Cougars (8-9-1) still hold the sixth and final postseason Canada West playoff berth as they sit six points up on seventh-place Manitoba (5-8-1). The Bisons, though, have four games in hand on the U of Rand will make up two of those on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon against Trinity Western (1-13-0).

Next weekend will see the Cougars head to Manitoba for the U of R's final games of the Canada West schedule. Assuming Manitoba takes the maximum four points from TWU this weekend, the Cougars could lock down a postseason berth by taking at least three points from the Bisons in next weekend's two-game series.

Manitoba and Regina will meet on Friday night (7:00) and Saturday afternoon (3:00) at the Wayne Fleming Arena.