Box Score GUELPH, Ont. – Two days after having their 15-game winning streak snapped, the Western Mustangs men’s hockey team returned to their winning ways on Saturday night, defeating the Guelph Gryphons 3-1.
 
“It was nice to see the guys put a full 60 minutes in following our first loss in a long time. It was something we haven't had to do a whole lot of and the guys responded well tonight,” said Western interim head coach Patrick Powers.
 
As they have many times this season Western spread the scoring around with three different Mustangs finding the back of the Guelph net. The line of Julian Cimadamore, captain Jason Furlong, and Matt Marantz led the way, going plus-1 with Cimadamore recording a goal and Marantz adding an assist. Although not showing up on the scoresheet Mustangs forward Adam McKee had an excellent game including going 10-1 in the faceoff circle.
 
Josh Unice was again between the pipes for the purple and white, stopping 21 of 22 shots for his CIS-leading 16th win of the season. Andrew Loverock manned the Guelph goal and stopped 25 of 28 shots in the loss.
 
After neither team was able to get into much of a rhythm in the first period Guelph’s Justin Gvora opened the scoring with his seventh goal of the season 4:42 into the second period. The Gryphons would control the majority of the scoring chances in the period, however Western tied things up in the final minute of play when Zach Harnden recorded a power play goal off of assists from Daniel Erlich and Steve Reese to send the teams to the second intermission tied 1-1.
 
The third period got off to a physical start and a scrum less than four minutes into the period resulted in four players totaling 28 minutes in penalties between the two teams. Not long after Matt Clarke took passes from Harnden and David Corrente and put the puck past Loverock to give the Mustangs a one-goal lead.
 
Cimadamore would extend that lead just over five minutes later, scoring his eighth goal of the season with Marantz and Andrew Eastman providing the assists. Cimadamore’s marker would be the last and the Mustangs picked up the 3-1 victory.
 
Western now holds an 18-4 record, and a six point lead in the OUA West Division. The team also maintains the best record in the entire OUA with a four point advantage over the OUA East leading Carleton Ravens.
 
Next up for the Mustangs is a pair of home games this coming Friday and Saturday. First up are the UOIT Ridgebacks on Friday night followed by the York Lions on Saturday. Puck drop for both games is set for 7:00 p.m. at Thompson Arena.