Western drop 3-1 loss to Ridgebacks on home ice

Box Score The Western Mustangs women’s hockey team faced off against the UOIT Ridgebacks tonight at Thompson Arena on Friday night. The Mustangs lost 1-3 after a well-fought game to the visiting Ridgebacks.

The first period consisted of rebounds and icings from the Mustangs skaters. Chasing the puck into Ridgeback territory throughout the game, the Mustangs put Ridgeback goalie Jessica Larabie to the test. With multiple opportunities of seizing the back of the Ridgeback net, Mustangs’ Stacey Scott finally put one in to open the scoreboard. With assist from Tara Cation and Kendra Deller, Scott was able to fly in from the point and bat one of the Mustang rebounds out of mid air and score Western’s only goal of the game. With time run out in the first frame, the Mustangs took the 1-0 lead into the intermission.

The opening minutes of the second provided a change of tides for the Ridgeback momentum as the team scored two goals early on. Ridgeback Jennifer Daly scored UOIT’s first goal of the game and teammate Gillian Morgan followed up with a goal of her own only minutes after. With a quick change of events the Mustangs lost their 1-0 lead and found themselves trailing a 2-1 Ridgeback lead into the third.

The Ridgebacks almost took an initial 3-1 lead early on in the first period but a goal was called off by the referees. Nonetheless, the Mustangs still had a chance to even the score.

“This was just their game tonight, (the Ridgebacks) came out as the stronger team and were able to find success in places we couldn’t.” commented Mustangs head coach Chris Higgins. “This was definitely a case of a goalie winning a team for them.”

The Ridgeback goalie held in for the remainder of the game and with a minute left to go and the Mustangs' goalie Kelly Campbell pulled, the Ridgebacks pulled away with an empty net goal. The Ridgebacks secured the 3-1 win over Western, and the win comes after the Mustangs beat the Oshawa team 2-0 in their first match up previously this season.

Looking ahead, the Mustangs are going back to the drawing board. “Windsor is one of the better teams and we are really going to have to come together to beat them,” said coach Higgins, regarding the Mustangs' next challenge: Sunday’s faceoff against the Windsor Lancers at 4:10 pm in Windsor.

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