Darian Durant got the best of his former team to kick-off the 2017 CFL season on Thursday night.

The Saskatchewan Roughriders lost 17-16 to the Alouettes in Montreal after kicker Tyler Crapigna missed a 45-yard field goal as time expired, giving Durant a victory over the team he was traded from in the offseason.

“I felt like the way it ended (in Saskatchewan) wasn’t right and football gods always come through at the end and those were the football gods that pushed that ball right because they know that what happened wasn’t suppose to happen that way,” Durant told TSN after the game.

The former Riders’ pivot was steady in the win for Montreal, completing 20-of-31 passes for 233 yards and two touchdowns.

Saskatchewan played a strong game, but some key mistakes ended up costing them in the end as they missed out on chances to take control of the game.

“Close is not good enough, you either win or lose a ball game, there’s no consolation prizes for one-point losses,” Riders’ head coach Chris Jones told the media following the game.

“It’s frustrating that as much as we preach penalties and hanging onto the football, that we take 21 penalties and put the ball on the ground. The guys are really frustrated because they know that they’re a good enough football team to have won the football game.”

Despite some issues that can be cleaned up, the Riders were in position to win the game, but Crapigna pushed his kick wide right at the end of the game, his only miss on four attempts in the game.

“Tyler is a good kicker, he’s an 85-something percent kicker in his career, and certainly we felt like we got him in decent range to kick it through,” said Jones.

“We had opportunities and we just didn’t come away with them, we didn’t capitalize on our opportunities, but the good thing about it is that’s Week 1, we’ve got 17 more,” added quarterback Kevin Glenn.

The 38-year-old quarterback finished with 298 passing yards on 31-of-44 attempts. He had one touchdown and one interception.

After struggling to move the ball in the first quarter, which ended with both teams scoreless, Kevin Glenn and the Riders’ offence started to find momentum in the second quarter and took a 10-7 lead heading into halftime.

Durant connected with BJ Cunningham for a 65-yard touchdown with 5:00 to go in the first half, but Saskatchewan answered right back with Glenn driving them down the field before finding Bakari Grant for a 19-yard TD strike.

Saskatchewan got the ball back with under a minute to go in the half and Glenn set up Crapigna for a 34-yard field that gave the Riders a three-point lead heading into the break.

Crapigna extended the Riders’ lead to 13-7 early in the third quarter as he capped a long opening drive with a 41-yard kick.

Durant and Montreal’s offence were able to respond however as they went in front 14-13 when Durant found Ernest Jackson for a 12-yard touchdown midway through the third.

The two teams traded 18-yard field goals in the fourth quarter. The Riders had to settle for their short field goal after the Riders brought in back-up QB Brandon Bridge in a wildcat formation in the redzone, but end missed an open Duron Carter in the end zone.

“We fought hard, but we’ve got to be more disciplined on certain things,” said Glenn. “The mistakes that we made are correctable, it’s not where guys aren’t capable of doing what’s asked of them, we can correct these mistakes and we will.”

There were plenty of bright spots in the game, including the play of Glenn. Montreal’s defence focused containing Carter and Naaman Roosevelt, leading to a big game from Nic Demski, who finished with a team-high seven catches for 87 yards.

Grant had six grabs for 68 yards, while Roosevelt finished with seven catches for 59 yards.

On the ground, Cameron Marshall had a strong game for Saskatchewan, rushing for 84 yards on 11 carries.

The Riders’ defence was able to hold the Alouettes in check for the most part to give the team a chance to win the game.

After playing two games in under a week, the Riders are getting the weekend off before returning to the field on Monday at Mosaic Stadium for practice.