After opening the regular season with a 6-2 victory over the Waterloo Warriors on Friday night the Western Mustangs men’s hockey team was on home ice Saturday opening their home schedule against the Laurier Golden Hawks. Despite falling behind 2-0 after two periods the Mustangs stormed back in the third with three straight goals to take a 3-2 victory.

“I didn’t like our team play in the middle 25 minutes of that game,” said Western head coach Patrick Powers on the team’s performance. “I thought we got off to a good start, but it’s about finding ways to win and we definitely followed more of that game plan in the third period.”

Rookie Kyle DeCoste (London, Ont.) and second-year forward Tyler Peters (Sarnia, Ont.) led the way for the Mustangs each recording a goal and an assist. DeCoste’s fellow rookie Matt Marantz recorded the game winner in his first regular season contest in front of the Mustangs faithful.

Despite outshooting the Golden Hawks 16-11 in the initial 20 minutes, the Mustangs couldn’t slip one past Laurier’s Ryan Daniels, who was impressive all game long. Josh Unice (Holland, Ohio) was also impressive in the Western net, however Derek Holden found a way to beat the fourth-year netminder in the final minute of the period, to make Laurier the first ones on the board.

The Golden Hawks took that momentum into the second frame, controlling the play at times and outshooting the Mustangs 13-10. Forward Mitchell Good scored with less than three minutes remaining in the period to give Laurier a two-goal lead it looked like they would not relinquish.

Western came out for the third period a different team when Peters put the first puck past Daniels to cut the Laurier lead in half. The Mustangs would pepper the Golden Hawk defence with shots and chances in the third period, firing 22 pucks at Daniels while limiting their opposition to only six shots. 

DeCoste tied the game just past the midway point of the period, before Marantz was able to jam one past Daniels with less than five minutes remaining to give the Mustangs their first lead of the game.

With the net empty in the final minute Laurier would make one last push into the Western end, but despite a face off in the Mustangs zone with less than 10 seconds remaining Western was able to hold on for the 3-2 victory.

Saturday’s come-from-behind victory was almost a 180 from Western’s win over Waterloo Friday that saw the Mustangs give up a two goal lead before scoring three goals in the final period to pull away for the win. Powers was pleased that his team was able to pick up the victory in two very different fashions on consecutive nights.

“It’s good last night,” said Powers. “We went in to Waterloo and played a good, really physical team in Waterloo and faced a little adversity. We were up 2-0, then it was 2-2 then took off with [a 6-2 win] so that was a good sign. Then tonight we’re down 2-0 and not playing well and gut out a 3-2 win. Those were two different wins that were really good for us.”

The win capped off a five game set between Western and Laurier on Saturday across various sports. The Mustangs won each game of the quasi-series, claiming victories in both men’s and women’s soccer, men’s rugby, and football prior to the win by the men’s hockey team. 

Next up for the Mustangs is another home contest, this time against the Guelph Gryphons on Wednesday night. Game time is set for 7:00 p.m. at Thompson Arena and the game will also be streamed live by Mustangs TV on SSN Canada.