The Western Mustangs men’s hockey team got their season off to a good start Friday night in Waterloo, defeating the Warriors 6-2. Second year forward Zach Harnden (Thunder Bay, Ont.) showed that there will be no initial sophomore slump after last year’s CIS Rookie of the Year award winning season, recording a hat trick in the season opener

The win was the first for Interim Head Coach Pat Powers, who was pleased with his team’s play following the game, saying: "the guys played hard tonight and established the forecheck well where we were really able to capitalized."

Fourth-year goaltender Josh Unice (Holland, Ohio) got the win between the pipes, stopping 32 of 34 shots. While Harnden led the way offensively, linemate Matt Clarke (London, Ont.) wasn’t far behind in his first CIS regular season game, scoring one goal and adding two assists. Joining his linemates with three points on the night was Matt Reese (Dorchester, Ont.) who added three assists, all on Harnden goals. Rookie defenceman David Corrente (Missisauga, Ont.) also had a strong debut, recording what would end up as the game winning goal and finishing at plus-2 for the evening. 

The Mustangs opened the scoring only eight minutes into the game with Julian Cimadamore (Concord, Ont.) putting Western on the board. The teams would each add two goals in the second period before the Mustangs took control in the third period. The physicality picked up in the final frame with each team racking up three penalties a piece. Despite the penalties the Western offence exploded in the third, scoring three goals, including two from Harnden, to end the game with a 6-2 victory.

Western is back in action Saturday night, hosting the Laurier Golden Hawks at 7:00 p.m. in the Thompson Arena in the team’s home opener.