The South East Prairie Thunder didn't lose their preliminary round opener at the 2018 Allan Cup in Rosetown, Saskatchewan.

But the two-time champions didn't get a win either.

The Prairie Thunder and Bethune Bulldogs skated to a 2-2 tie Monday.

"I thought for two periods we were pretty good and then I thought Bethune turned it on in the third and we kind of held on a little bit," said South East captain Ryan Bonni. "Probably a pretty entertaining game for the fans,"

Brennan Bosch opened the scoring for the Saskatchewan representatives as he beat Prairie Thunder goaltender Steve Christie 3:15 into the first period.

Shortly after Tyler Dittmer and Del Cowan scored two minutes apart to give South East a 2-1 lead which the Prairie Thunder held on to until Drew George potted the equalizer with 6:40 remaining in regulation.

Neither team scored in overtime.

South East will play its final preliminary round game today (5 pm.) against the Elsipogtog Hawks who are representing the Atlantic region.

"We've just got to be smarter," said Dittmer when asked what the game plan is for Tuesday. "We know the other teams have played together all year and their going to get chances. We just got to be strong defensively and hopefully sneak out a win and then a day off to practice and work on some stuff."