Regina won the male title at the prestigious Mac’s Midget AAA World Invitational Hockey Tournament on Monday (January 1) in Calgary, blanking the Red Deer Optimist Chiefs 4-0 in the championship game.

It was the first Mac’s title for the Pat Canadians, who advanced to the final by winning back-to-back overtime playoff games on Sunday.

“They were just a very resilient crew,” Pat Canadians head coach Darrin McKechnie said Tuesday.

“They always seemed to find a way to get the goal, to make the play, or do whatever was needed at that particular time. Whether it was a save, a blocked shot or a timely goal, we ended up being able to do that.”

In the final, tournament playoff MVP Jaydon Dureau scored both first-period goals for Regina before assisting on the team’s other two markers — by Matthew Culling and Chase Nameth. Regina led 2-0 and 3-0 at the intermissions.

Jared Thompson made 16 saves for the shutout. Red Deer goalie Bretton Park was tested 31 times.

The Pat Canadians needed to win a pair of nail-biters Sunday to advance to Monday’s showdown with Red Deer.

In a quarter-final, Nameth scored 4:45 into sudden-death play to give Regina a 3-2 victory over the Fraser Valley Thunderbirds. Dureau scored in the waning seconds of the third period to force overtime.

“We were going home in the quarter-finals in 10 seconds,” McKechnie noted.

There was little time to rest before Sunday’s semi-final against the New York Junior Islanders. Taylor Halbgewachs scored at 4:53 of triple overtime to give his team a 2-1 victory.

The Pat Canadians had come close to winning the title in 2015, only to lose 2-1 in double overtime to the Cariboo Cougars. The Regina team took the final step on Monday.