LONDON, Ont. - In a battle of powerplay units, the Western Mustangs men’s hockey team (10-0-1) came out on top in a 5-4 victory over the Guelph Gryphons (5-5-0).
Keaton Turkiewicz (Brantford, Ont.) scored two goals for the Mustangs and remaining goals were notched by Steve Reese (Dorchester, Ont.), Kevin Baker (Georgetown, Ont.) and Aaron Snow (Windsor, Ont.). Snow also assisted on three goals. Timothy Priamo (Guelph, Ont.) earned two goals for the Gryphons, while Kris Belan (Florence, Ont.) and Nathan Martine (Port Colborne, Ont.) both scored one goal.
Western’s first goal came on the powerplay attack after Reese threw the puck at Gryphons goaltender Andrew Loverock (Elmvale, Ont.) from the side of the net. The puck drifted through the crease before being redirected back to Reese off a skate in front of the net. Reese tapped in his own rebound for a 1-0 lead.
Guelph’s powerplay unit countered the Mustangs attack only two minutes later as Priamo wired a shot through traffic to beat Western’s netminder Anthony Grieco (Brampton, Ont.).
Back and forth play continued and neither team held the lead for more than five minutes through the second frame. Both squads continued to test their man-advantage abilities and the Mustangs rose to the occasion first in the second period after Turkiewicz craddled the puck down low and beat Loverock on the short side for a 2-1 lead.
The Gryphons refused to back down and four minutes later on another powerplay opportunity, Priamo notched his second goal of the game on a shot from the point.
Guelph’s third goal came just three seconds into a powerplay as left winger Belan grabbed the puck at the drop of the face-off and lifted a backhand over Grieco’s shoulder.
Western answered as Turkiewicz scored the first even-strength goal of the contest, his second of the game, on a shot that snuck past a surprised Loverock who thought he had the puck secured. The second period finished square at 3-3.
Baker added the Mustangs fourth goal on the powerplay as he patiently held the puck near the top of the circle, picked an open target on net and capitalized.
Snow secured the win on a debated goal after receiving a long pass from Turkiewicz. Snow streaked down the left wing and cut across the crease, sliding the puck past Loverock to increase Western’s lead to 5-3.
Martine scored for Guelph with 20 seconds left in the game, but Western’s squad denied the Gryphons a tying goal.
Both Western and Guelph scored on three of their six powerplay opportunities .
Head coach Clarke Singer noted the importance of holding the lead in a closely matched game, “We knew it was going to be a very, very tough game, Guelph’s a great team, every time you get ahead thats a couple goals they have to score to beat you so we tried to get off to a good start.”
“The guys battled hard, it was probably the best game of the year for all three periods,” Singer added.
The Mustangs play host to the Toronto Blues on Nov. 19 for a 7:30 p.m. contest.
