The defending champions weren't in the mood to see their season come to an end Saturday night.

Guy St. Vincent made 33 saves and Steph Pattyn had a goal and an assist as the Aces defeated Red River 5-2 in Ste. Anne.

The Aces cut the Wild's lead in the Carillon Senior Hockey League's best-of-seven final to three games to two.

Ste. Anne coach Kevin Lansard had his starting goaltender and captain back in the lineup after both finished serving suspensions they received earlier in the series.

"It's not just what they bring on the ice but the leadership they do in the room," said Lansard. "I think that's what people can't see out there. It's just one win but it's one we had to win and with the feeling of everybody right now, and the confidence we're starting to gain, I'm looking forward to game six."

Colin Lafreniere, Brennan Ritchie, Dustin Pearson and Colan Jackson also scored for the Aces who enjoyed a 3-0 lead until Derek Mohr scored a power play goal at 15:36 of the second period.

Andrew Kaminsky then blasted a slap shot past St. Vincent with 65 seconds left in the middle frame which cut the deficit to 3-2.

Pearson's goal 6:15 into the third period gave Ste. Anne some breathing room and Jackson put the game on ice scoring an empty netter with 57 seconds remaining.

"We knew they were going to throw it all at us tonight especially on home ice," said Mohr. "They're a good hockey team so you got to give them respect every night. Our game plan was to go out there and play our game and let the rest take care of itself."

The Aces and Wild will play game six Sunday (3 p.m.) in St. Jean.

That means puck drop will be 16-and-a-half hours after the buzzer sounded to end game five.

The Ste. Anne captain believes game six will have a different feel to it compared to game five which was highly intense and extremely physical.

"Both teams are going to be tired," said Steph Pattyn. "It's going to be more of a dump it in and get a good bounce and try to get pucks to the net as much as we can. Both teams are going to play that way so we're going to have to just make sure we're ahead of it on all those aspects."