Box Score NORTH BAY, Ont. – For the second time in as many weeks the Western Mustangs men’s hockey team headed to northern Ontario for OUA regular season play, this time taking on the Nipissing Lakers on Friday night. Second-year forward Zach Harnden had his second multi-goal game of the season and goaltender Josh Unice stopped 38 of 39 shots in a 5-1 Mustangs victory.
 
"Good team effort tonight,” said Western head coach Patrick Powers. “We gave up more shots then we would have liked to but Josh Unice played exceptionally well for us. I thought we were really able to capitalize on our chances tonight and our hard work paid off in the end."
 
Harnden, who opened the scoring for the Mustangs, now has goals in four of Western’s seven regular season games, including a hat trick in the season opener against Waterloo. For Unice it’s his third 30-plus save game of the year and he recorded more stops tonight than in any game so far this season. The win was the netminder’s fourth victory in six starts.
 
Both teams hit the ice hard in the opening period and a raucous crowd of more than 1,400 Lakers fans were treated to a physical first period with both teams laying hits against each other. Despite the physicality both teams stayed out of the box for the most part, with the two sides only accounting for six penalty minutes between them.
 
Hardned opened the scoring 12 minutes into the second period scoring on a loose puck in front of Lakers goaltender Kirk Rafuse. Freshman defenceman wouldn’t wait long to add to Western’s total, intercepting a pass in the Nipissing zone and firing a slap shot past Rafuse to put the Mustangs up 2-0.
 
Just over 90 seconds later Geoff Killing was called for boarding giving Nipissing the opportunity to close the gap however Julian Cimadamore scored on a pass from Jason Furlong to give Western a commanding 3-0 lead late in the second period.
 
The Lakers would score their only goal of the game with 19 seconds left in the second period when Matt Paton scored on a scramble in front of Unice.
 
Tyler Peters and Harnden would add to the lead in the third while Unice would turn away all 18 shots he faced in the period to give Western the 5-1 victory.
 
The Mustangs now move to 5-3 on the season and pull into sole possession of fifth place in the OUA West. The team heads to Toronto tomorrow evening for a showdown with the Ryerson Rams in the new Mattamy Athletic Centre, formerly known as Maple Leaf Gardens.