REGINA -- It was heartbreak for the hosts and elation for the smallest market in the Canadian Hockey League.

The Acadie-Bathurst Titan added the Memorial Cup to their haul this season with a 3-0 win over the Regina Pats at a sold-out Brandt Centre on Sunday night.

"It's incredible, this is the best feeling every and it means everything, we worked so hard for the whole year and to win this trophy is just the best thing that could happen for us," said Titan captain Jeffrey Truchon-Viel.

This is the first Memorial Cup title for the Titan and the first for a Quebec Major Junior Hockey League champion since Halifax in 2013 in Saskatoon.

The Titan were the best team throughout the tournament and they capped it off with their most complete performance. They dominated the Pats through 40 minutes, outshooting them 36-11 through two periods, and then they sealed the win with two goals in the third.

"We were playing our identity for the first time of the tournament, we played our game, our identity is to create puck possession, we have a lot of speed, so we want to play fast to put pressure on their D and tonight every time we didn't have the puck, we were chasing the puck and forcing them to create a turnover," said Titan head coach Mario Pouliot.

"We needed a second puck on the ice because for two periods they didn't let us have it, so it's tough to win," added Pats head coach John Paddock. 

"They were on us all the time, they were faster, they had the puck and didn't let us have it and when we did have it, we couldn't make hard enough plays to get out, even our good players, so it was a tough go."

Titan defenceman Adam Holwell opened the scoring with 3:50 left in the first period and he was the only Titan player that was able to beat 17-year-old Pats goalie Max Paddock through two periods.

Paddock made big save after big save to make sure that his team had a chance to come back in the game.

"He was unbelievable, it probably shouldn't have been as close as it was for a bit there, but he was keeping us in it and he's just an unbelievable goalie," said Pats captain Sam Steel.

After sitting out the Pats first round playoff series, Paddock returned to play some of the best hockey of his career on the biggest stage of his career. He finished with 41 saves in Sunday’s final.

"It sucks coming up short, but personally, it hasn't really set in yet, so maybe in a year or two, I'll be able to look back at this and see that this was some of the best times of my life with these guys and how close we came makes it that much worse," said Paddock.

"I feel like I grew a lot, I had a pretty good game in the first game and then I took five steps back (in the first game against Acadie-Bathurst), but I beared down and gave it my all."

Trailing 1-0 heading into the third, the Pats were finally able to generate some pressure in the early part of the final frame. However, the Max Paddock show turned into the Evan Fitzpatrick show as he made a couple of big stops to keep his team in front.

The Titan found some insurance with just 6:58 to play when Samuel Asselin pushed the puck past Paddock after a great feed from Viel.

Regina went on the power play a few minutes later, but couldn’t convert, which forced them to pull their goalie to try to tie the game and Ethan Crossman iced the win for Acadie-Bathurst with an empty net goal in the final minute.

"We were pretty comfortable with a one-goal lead going into the third, we've done it tons of time before and to finish it off is pretty special," said Fitzpatrick, who stopped all 28 shots he faced for the shutout.

"We had a goal coming in here, we knew we were underdogs coming in, but we showed we can play hockey and all that’s left is we're number one, so it's pretty special."

The Pats fell just short of becoming the second straight host team to win the Memorial Cup.

Steel was named the tournament MVP after posting 13 points in five games, but he said that doesn’t make the loss sting any less.

"I would trade (the MVP) ten times out of ten for the Memorial Cup, but that's not the case," said Steel. 

"It's tough, not sure what to think right now, it's just tough."

The 2019 Memorial Cup will be hosted by the Halifax Mooseheads.