LONDON, Ont. – Mustangs key forward line consisting of Aaron Snow (Windsor, ON), Keaton Turkiewicz (Brantford, ON), and Kevin Baker (Georgetown, ON) contributed four of the five Western goals as the Mustangs defeated Université du Québec à Trois Rivières (UQTR) 5-1 on Nov. 13 at Thompson Arena.

Snow claimed two goals while Baker, Turkiewicz, and captain Luc Martin (St. Thomas, ON) each earned one goal. Etienne Bellavance-Martin (St-Jean Chrysostome, Q.C.) scored the only Patriotes goal.

Western struggled handling the puck in the first minute of play, fighting to clear the puck out of the defensive zone. UQTR’s Bellavance-Martin capitalized on a Mustang mishap and banked the puck off the post into the net past goaltender Anthony Grieco (Brampton, ON).

The first period finished with a 1-0 lead in UQTR’s favour.

Baker scored Western’s game-tying goal at 11:34 in the second period after he tipped defenseman Ryan Martinelli's (London, ON) shot from the point past Patriotes netminder Jean-Christophe Blanchard, pulling the Mustangs back into the game.

The game’s stakes were at its highest heading into the third frame with the score tied at one. Martinelli wired a shot on net five minutes into the period, but only made contact with the post. Fortunately, Snow was perfectly placed beside the net where he redirected Martinelli’s rebound past Blanchard to put Western ahead by one.

Blanchard’s got called for a roughing penalty putting Western back on the powerplay. Turkiewicz made a cross-ice pass to Baker who spotted Snow open in the slot and fed him a pass. Snow ripped a one-time shot past the goal line to secure a 3-1 lead.

The following goals scored by Turkiewicz and Martin were also powerplay goals. Head coach Clarke Singer said the powerplay is a critical part of every game.

“The guys really moved the puck well and we were rewarded with a couple of goals,” said Singer.

The Mustangs (8-2-0) are currently ranked first in the Western conference, correspondingly UQTR (8-1-0) is ranked second in the Eastern conference. Western’s victory continued an eight game winning streak and handed UQTR their first loss of the season.

Western hosts Concordia University on Nov. 14 at Thompson Arena for a 7:30 p.m. game.

BOX SCORE
Western 5, UQTR 1
(Nov 13, 2009 - Thompson Arena, London, Ont.)
1st Period
1.UQTR, Bellavance-Martin 3 (Breton, Charland), 0:27.
Penalties-Baker Uwo (tripping), 1:34; Caouette Uqtr (boarding), 11:39.
2nd Period
2. Western, Baker 6 (Martinelli, Nemeth), 11:34.
Penalties-Ouellet Uwo (inter. on goaltender), 0:00; Bellefleur Uqtr (hooking), 5:45; Chicoine Uqtr (high sticking), 16:50.
3rd Period
3. Western, Snow 5 (Martinelli, Furlong), 4:48.
4. Western, Snow 6 (Baker, Turkiewicz), 11:18 (pp).
5. Western, Turkiewicz 8 (Baker, Martinelli), 17:30 (pp).
6. Western, Martin 1 (Corbeil, Swit), 19:05 (pp).
Penalties-Blanchard Uqtr (roughing), 10:21; Martinelli Uwo (holding), 11:40; McCann Uwo (high sticking), 13:26; Joncas Uqtr (high sticking), 16:34; Leblanc Uqtr (slashing), 17:30.
Scoring By  1 2 3 T
Western  0 1 4 5
UQTR   1 0 0 1
Shots on Goal  1 2 3 T
Western   12 12 15 39
UQTR    7 5 7 19
Powerplays: Western 3/6. UQTR 0/4.
Goalies- Western (Grieco, W 7-0-0, 18 saves on 19 shots) UQTR (Blanchard, L 8-1-0, 34 saves on 39 shots)
Attendance: 125
Referees-Kevin Umansky.
Linesmen- Chris Fraumeni, Drew Jackson