A team that never quit fought to the bitter end.

The Swift Current Broncos came close to eliminating 5-2 and 6-4 deficits before falling 6-5 to the Regina Pats and getting knocked out from the Mastercard Memorial Cup.

The loss ends a memorable season for the WHL Champions with an 0-3 record in the national championship.

"Our mistakes were I thought throughout this tournament tired mistakes," said Broncos Coach/Director of Player Personnel Manny Viveiros. "Our group is tired. Our energy level was very, very low and throughout the games you could see how tired we are. Normally when you get tired you're going to make mental mistakes and you just don't have that extra gear we've always had. I'm so proud of that group. It's a real special group."

The Broncos went through a record 26 WHL playoff games on the way to winning the Ed Chynoweth Cup as league champions. That run took a tole on the WHL Champions as they lost three one-goal games at the event.

"What we accomplished before here and this road we had to take to get here," Viveiros said. "The 26 playoff games, triple overtime, a double and three single overtimes just to get here. We would never have changed that for everything. We've learned so much as a group about ourselves."

The Broncos were battered by injuries, banged up and worn out after that long run. That included injuries to key players that either kept them out of games at this tournament or limited them.

"He's concussed," Viveiros said of Tyler Steenbergen. "Glenn Gawdin has been playing since the Lethbridge series with a separated shoulder and we thought we lost him. To battle through what he had to just to play was just amazing. There was times he could barely move his shoulder. Artyom Minulin the first series against Regina dislocated his shoulder. He was lost and came back and dislocated it again. He'll have surgery here right away."

While they didn't get the results that they were looking for this week, Broncos captain Glenn Gawdin said they remain proud of the season and run that they put together.

"The fatigue factor might have set in a bit for us in this tournament and five extra minutes and we would have got it," said Gawdin.

"This is a tough trophy to win, but we're still champions and we won that, so definitely can't hang our heads for the season, it's a successful season, but it just didn't play out in the end."

The game featured plenty of momentum swings with the Pats holding leads of 2-0, 3-1, 5-2 and 6-4 at different points throughout the back-and-forth affair.

Nick Henry opened the scoring with a power play goal 7:36 into the game and he'd finish with a hat trick in the win for the Pats. The line of Henry, Steel and Cameron Hebig combined for four goals and ten points.

"Sam is a special player, I've played a lot with him over the past few years and we have good chemistry built up and adding Cam to that is a real nice addition and its been a lot of fun," said Henry after the win.

There was a few stretches of utter chaos during the game.

With Regina leading 3-1 late in the second period, Henry scored a shorthanded goal to extend the Pats' lead, but Beck Malenstyn came right back only 23 seconds later with a power play goal to make it a two-goal game again.

Only 1:02 after that, Henry struck again, finishing off another great feed from Steel for his hat trick goal and making it a three-goal game going into the third.

The final ten minutes of regulation was filled with twists and turns. It started with Bryce Platt scoring for the first time in months to put Regina up 5-2 with under ten minutes to play.

The Broncos wouldn't go away quietly however with Aleksi Heponiemi scoring his first of the tournament with 5:38 left in the game. Then 2:49 later, Giorgio Estephan pulled Swift Current to within one.

A power play goal by Libor Hajek with 1:37 to play looked like it again sealed the win for the Pats, but Gawdin scored his second of the game only 47 seconds later to again make it a one-goal game.

The final push ended up falling just short for the Broncos.

"We were close, it showed a lot about the character of our team, we didn't quit for a second," said Gawdin. "Just the way that things went in this game, it was a lot of ups and downs, but we stuck with it and we were that close."

Swift Current is the third straight WHL champion to go 0-3 at the Memorial Cup despite coming close all week wth three one-goal losses.

As the season wraps up, the Broncos were so impressed with the support they got from their home fans both at home and at visiting rinks.

"They're behind us the whole time," Viveiros said. "You can feel it in the city... it's an incredible organization to work for and a great city. It's a great hockey city."

The Broncos are going to announce plans for a celebration fo the Ed Chynoweth Cup winners with details coming out later today.