LONDON, Ont.-The Western Mustangs got up to a quick lead and held on during the third annual Jack Frost Cup, which was held at the John Labatt Centre on Jan. 16 against the team who snapped their 16 game undefeated streak,  the UOIT Ridgebacks. The Mustangs defeated the Ridgebacks by a final score of 4-1 in front a crowd of over 1800 fans to hoist the Jack Frost Trophy.

Western held UOIT scoreless in the first period scoring two unanswered goals with Jason Furlong (London Ont.) opening the scoring at 5:38. Western continued to over take the visiting end with Keaton Turkiewicz (Brantford, Ont.) roofing it overtop of UOIT goalie Jason Guy (Whitby, Ont.) for his 19th goal of the season. Turkiewicz and linemate Aaron Snow (Windsor, Ont.) both went into this game tied with 36 points each putting them among the top five point leaders in the CIS.

It was a quiet second period with the lone goal coming from the Mustangs Mike Sharp (Sault. St. Marie, Ont.) who netted Westerns third goal of the night at 2:43 into the second period. UOIT was still held scoreless and the Mustangs continued to dominate in UOIT territory with shots on goal being 10-5 in the second period.

UOIT started to show signs of life in the third period when Scott Baker (Mactiar, Ont.) scored a shorthanded goal at 4:09 putting them within two goals of the Mustangs lead. UOIT seemed to have been sparked by their short-handed goal as they kept Western on their toes. Josh Varty (Oshawa, Ont.) of UOIT missed an opportunity when he shot just over the net after Westerns goaltender Keyvan Hunt (Coquitlam, B.C.) was still down after a previous save. UOIT’s third period effort was not enough as Western defeated the Ridgebacks 4-1 adding an empty netter in dying seconds play from Kevin Baker (Georgetown, Ont.)

Mustangs head coach Clark singer seemed pleased with his teams effort after the game.”Overall as a team we played well from start to finish,” he said.

Going forward the Mustangs now sit with a 18-4 record overall sitting atop the OUA West division however Singer says he wants to see the team improve as the year rolls along.” We just want to continue to get better, in the weeks of February 15th and 16th  we have to play as good as we ever have,” said Singer.

The Mustangs will now travel to Thunder Bay, Ont. to take on the Lakehead Thunderwolves in back-to-back match-ups next weekend.