Discipline and finishing on their chances are biggest areas that need improvement for the Prairie Hockey Academy Elite 15s coming out of Tuesday’s meeting with the Regina Monarchs bantam AA team at the Barkman Arena.

PHA surrendered three power plays to the Monarchs in the opening 10 minutes of the game, leading to a pair of goals, which they could never recover from in a 4-1 exhibition game loss.

“Three penalties in the first 10 minutes, you’re down, you’re chasing, they get a couple of quick power play goals, it’s a tough way to start a game,” said PHA head coach Rodney MacPhee. “It’s always tough to come back on an uphill battle like that, but I give the Monarchs a lot of credit, they put the pucks in the net when they had to and capitalized.”

It’s not like PHA wasn’t without their chances throughout the game, they ended up out-shooting the Monarchs, 47-45, and had plenty of pressure and quality scoring chances over the final 40 minutes.

The home team just couldn’t capitalize as consistently as Regina in the loss.

“We need to pick it up at the start, penalties really killed us in this game,” said PHA forward Evan Callaghan. “We had our chances, but power play and penalty kill didn’t work out for us and you’ve got to capitalize on that stuff and do better in that area.”

PHA forward Tanner Funk cuts between two Regina Monarchs defenders during Tuesday's exhibition game at the Barkman Arena in Caronport. (Photo: Marc Smith)

David Fry (4:55) and Jackson Smith (11:52) scored power play goals in the first period for the Monarchs.  Fry was able to extend the lead to 3-0 just before the midway point of the second period.

The Elite 15s continued to bring the pressure and Callaghan was able to find the back of the net with 2:29 to play in the middle frame, making it a two-goal game going into the third.

Despite a strong opening shift from PHA, Regina was able to spike for a goal from Logen Hammett only 1:03 into the third, which took the air out of the sails for PHA.

“They never quit, but you’ve got to capitalize on your own scoring opportunities, your own power plays,” said MacPhee. “You’ve got to show up.”

PHA captain Noah Schindel fires a shot on net during Tuesday's 4-1 loss to the Regina Monarchs at the Barkman Arena in Caronport. (Photo: Marc Smith)

It’s been a busy schedule to start the year for the new academy as they’ve attended four tournaments, while also playing in a number of exhibition games. They’ve suited up for 22 games in total.

MacPhee said this game was good lesson in coming in focused for every game.

“It’s Christmas, everybody is ready for a break, but we still had to play a game, it was a big game that we’d like to have won and it’s a learning lesson,” he said.

The team came together in September and have been growing together since then. MacPhee said they’ve made some great progress over the past four months.

“If you go back to our first game here against Weyburn, it’s night and day difference, but we can’t take teams for granted, you have to always come like you’re playing the best,” said MacPhee.

PHA will now take a break for the holidays. Their next game action will come on Jan. 13-14 when they host the Saskatoon River Kings at the Barkman Arena for a pair of games.