LONDON, Ont. – The Western Mustangs men’s hockey team (19-2-3) won the Jack Frost Cup and clinched the first place position in the OUA West division with a 4-0 victory over the Lakehead Thunderwolves (16-8-0) on Sat. Jan. 28 at Thompson Arena.
 
Zach Harnden had two goals and an assist for the Mustangs as Dominic Desando and Tyler Peters added the remaining Western goals. Peters also had an assist while Steve Reese had two.
 
Western opened the scoring in the second period as Desando, Jason Furlong and Shaun Furlong exploded on a 3-on-1 rush. Furlong streaked down the wing and pulled the Lakehead defender and goaltender Alex Dupuis to the right side of the ice. Desando charged the net with his stick on the ice and wired a one-timer past Dupuis for a 1-0 lead.
 
Ten minutes later, Reese controlled the puck in the Thunderwolves’ corner, looking for an outlet pass. Reese found Adam Nemeth on the point who didn’t have an open lane and threw the puck at the net. The puck missed the net, hit the end boards and jumped out to the front of the net. Harnden skated hard to the net looking for a loose puck and he capitalized on the chance as the disc came loose.
 
Less than two minutes later, Mustangs left winger Peters cut across the crease and put a shot on net. Dupuis stopped the initial shot but no one was there to tie Peters up as he grabbed his own rebound and put the second shot past Dupuis for a three goal lead heading into the third.
 
The Thunderwolves held Western scoreless in the third until the 15:16 mark.  The Mustangs attacked Lakehead’s zone full tilt as Reese launched a pass from the right wing board to the center of the ice for Harnden. Harnden cradled the pass and rifled a shot that beat Dupuis for a 4-0 final.
 
Western has only four regular season games remaining and with the win, they move nine points ahead of second place Lakehead. The Mustangs cannot be reached in the standings and they will hold the first place position to start the 2012 playoffs.
 
Head coach Clarke Singer commented on the steps looking towards the playoffs, saying “We’ve had a focus looking forward to the playoffs all year and we’ve got to be the best team when we arrive there in the middle of February and we still have lots of things about our game we need to tidy up.”
 
Singer added, “Your special teams have to be outstanding and right now ours our good but they’re not where they have to be. Our defensive game has to still be a little better, we gave up a bunch of odd man rushes tonight.”
 
The Mustangs play two home games next weekend on Fri. Feb. 3 and Sat. Feb. 4. Western challenges Waterloo on Friday night then they will face Lakehead for a rematch on Saturday. Both games have a 7:35 p.m. start time and tickets can be purchased here http://westernmustangstickets.universitytickets.com/user_pages/category.asp?id=83