LONDON, Ont. - With just four games remaining in the regular season, the Western Mustangs men's hockey team hits the road on Feb. 3 for a game in Windsor against the Lancers and then hop back on the bus to Guelph to take on the Gryphons on Feb. 4 . Both games begin at 7:30 p.m.

The Mustangs are coming off a pair of back to back losses in Thunder Bay, Ont., where the Lakehead Thunderwolves enacted revenge after Western beat them in back to back games on Jan. 8 and 9 in London. The weekend losses allowed the Thunderwolves to pull even with the Mustangs at 36 points as the teams are now tied for top spot in the OUA West. Western holds the tiebreaker over Lakehead with a better goal differential (+3).

Western men's hockey head coach Clarke Singer said while the loss was difficult, it is something that you can expect when you don't bring your best game each night.

"Teams within our conference are so good and the margin for error is so small that when youre not your best, you can lose to anyone," said Singer.

Heading into Windsor, the Mustangs are 2-4 in their last six games, after reeling off an astonishing 16 straight regular season victories. In two previous match ups this season the Mustangs haven't lost to the Lancers, beating them 4-1 and 3-2 in overtime, both games were at home for Western, where they are 11-2 this season. Heading into the game, Mustangs forwards Aaron Snow (Windsor, Ont.) and Keaton Turkiewicz (Brantford, Ont.)sit fourth and fifth in league scoring with 39 and 38 points respectively and will be counted on along with line mate Kevin Baker (Georgetown, Ont.) to get the teams offense rolling.

The Lancers currently hold down seventh spot in the OUA West with 22 points, and are fighting for their playoff lives in the tight division.

After the battle with the Lancers, the Mustangs will make the long trip up to Guelph where they take on the fifth-place Gryphons. The trip will be a long one across southwestern Ontario, but it's nothing that Singer's team can't handle.

"It's not the optimum case but it happens, and it's not the first time we've done back-to-back games in the year with traveling," said Singer. "We run four lines, six defencemen and take short shifts, these guys will be fine."

The Gryphons are seemingly another team that hasn't posed a huge threat this season so far to the Mustangs, as Western has defeated them twice in the regular season by scores of 5-1 and 4-3. The Mustangs did fall to the Gryphons though in the Steele Blade Tournament over the winter holiday break, losing 8-5.

Going forward, even with the playoffs right in front of the team that is not top priority right now. 

Singer said the focus still remains on these final four games. 

"We just want to stay focused on the games this week and go into playoffs playing good. Thats the focus, on our own game playing well these next two games and really, you can't tell at all where at all we will finish."

The Mustangs won't be at home again until Feb. 13, when they host Wilfrid Laurier in the regular season finale at 7:30 p.m. at Thompson Arena.

CIS Men's Hockey top 10 as of Feb. 1.
1. UNB (23-0-0)
2. Alberta (19-2-1)
3. UQTR (18-3-2)
4. Acadia (15-6-2)
5. WESTERN ONTARIO (18-6-0)
6. McGill (18-5-0)
7. Lakehead (17-5-2)
8. Manitoba (13-7-2)
9. Waterloo (17-6-1)
10. Saint Mary’s (12-8-4)