The Saskatchewan Rush controlled much of the game, but couldn’t finish off the New England Black Wolves on Saturday night.

The Rush lost for the first time at home this season, falling 13-12 in overtime to the Black Wolves at SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon.

“We’d rather lose a game like that now instead of in the playoffs,” said forward Curtis Knight, who had two goals and four points in the loss for the Rush.

Saskatchewan sits at 7-1 at home now and 10-5 overall, which gives them a 1.5-game lead on the Colorado Mammoth for top spot in the West Division with three games to play in the regular season.

Saturday was a game that saw the Rush control the play right from the start, but New England was able to hang around, never allowing Saskatchewan to stretch their lead beyond four goals outside of the opening 4-0 lead to start the game.

“They kept fighting back,” said Rush head coach Derek Keenan. “We had opportunities to get up by three or four again and they kept it close, but we were up by three pretty late and should have put that game away.”

Saskatchewan led 12-9 with just two minutes to play, but New England scored three times with an extra attacker to send the game to overtime.

Chad Culp scored twice in the final two minutes, including the game-tying goal with just eight seconds remaining in regulation.

The Rush got into some penalty trouble in the extra frame and that led to a power play goal from Shawn Evans to win the game for the Black Wolves.

“It took everybody in our locker room to come back and win that game, we didn’t quit, these guys are two-time champions, they’re a good team, they’re tough to beat and you have to be your best to beat this team,” said Evans, who had two goals and four points in the win.

This was the Black Wolves first ever trip to SaskTel Centre and Evans said it was a challenge going up against the two-time defending champs in front of a raucous crowd.

“The fans here are unbelievable,” said Evans. “You’ve got 15,000 fans screaming and yelling, it definitely makes it tough. Kudos to the Saskatchewan Rush fans, they do a great job here of getting in your face and getting on you, but overall it was a good win by our team and we’ve just got to keep the momentum going.”

Saskatchewan started really quick, jumping out to a 4-0 lead in the opening 7:05 of the first quarter.

Knight opened the scoring just 1:04 into the game and then Jeff Cornwall and Robert Church scored just 23 seconds apart to make it 3-0. Church added his second of the game just over two minutes later on the power play to put Saskatchewan up by four.

The Black Wolves started to battle back with goals from Kevin Buchanan and Sheldon Burns late in the first to make it 4-2. Buchanan scored his second of the game just five seconds into the second quarter to make it a one-goal game.

Jeremy Thompson and Mark Matthews scored for the Rush in the second quarter as they took a 6-4 lead into halftime.

The third quarter was back-and-forth with Matt Hossack opening the scoring for the Rush 1:04 into the frame, but Buchanan picked up his hat trick goal just 25 seconds later to make sure New England kept pace.

Ryan Keenan, Mike Messanger and Ben McIntosh also scored in the third for the Rush as they kept their two-goal advantage, taking a 10-8 lead into the fourth.

The two teams traded goals early in the fourth with Saskatchewan extending their lead to 12-9 before the Black Wolves exploded late to tie the game.

“We just made some poor decisions down the stretch,” said Keenan. “We made some poor decisions a lot of the night that ended up in our net and we made a couple of bad ones in the last minute and a half of the game and ended up in our net. They battled, they fought back.

“Tough one to swallow though, I thought we controlled most of the game and then let it slip away... It’s better to let it happen now than in the playoffs, but we’ll regroup, we’ll be back here next week and get at it.”

Rush goalie Aaron Bold made some big saves throughout the game, turning away 35 shots.  New England goalie Evan Kirk stopped 43 of 55 Rush shots in the win.

The Rush will be back in action this Saturday when they host the Toronto Rock in their final home game of the regular season. The action starts at 7:30 p.m.

They head to Colorado and Calgary on the final weekend of the regular season.