Box Score LONDON, Ont. – Strong goaltending from Josh Unice and a balanced offensive attack helped lead the Western Mustangs men’s hockey team to their 13th straight victory, defeating the UOIT Ridgebacks 7-1 on Saturday night.
 
Despite eventually taking over and scoring six unanswered goals, the Ridgebacks controlled the early portion of the game, outshooting the Mustangs in the first 20 minutes finishing the first frame with the game tied at 1.
 
“I wasn’t overly happy with the start that we had,” said Western interim head coach Patrick Powers. We knew that these guys wanted a bit of a track meet, they wanted to skate and stretch the play out offensively. That’s what they tried to do and they had a lot of success with that early on. I don’t think we had any scoring chances in the first period outside of our goal and that’s unacceptable for a team that hopes to be challenging for a national championship this year.”
 
After a slow start Western turned things around in the second period, beginning with Zach Harnden scoring the eventual game winner, one-timing a shot from the slot off of a pass from Adam McKee. The Furlong brothers would add to Western lead in the final moments of the period with Shaun picking up his first goal of the season with Jason and Andrew Eastman contributing the assists.
 
Continuing to spread the scoring around four different Mustangs players found the back of the net in the final period with Matt Paltridge, Julian Cimadamore, Adam Stoykewych, and Ryan Kirk providing the offence. Kirk recorded the final marker, his first of the year, in the last minute in impressive fashion. After missing on a breakaway attempt Kirk regained control of the puck and made no mistake, wiring a shot into the top corner to send the Mustangs home with a 7-1 win.
 
“Ryan Kirk has played extremely well for us and has brought a nice element to that fourth line, adding some speed to the finesse of McKee and grit of Stoykewych. They compliment each other quite well,” said Powers.
 
With eleven different players recording points including seven separate goal scorers the Mustangs demonstrated they have the depth of talent needed to succed over a long season.
 
“[The offensive balance] is great,” said Powers. “I don’t think our top line had a point tonight, but it’s good to see we’re still able to win games when that happens.”
 
Unice as always was strong in the Western net, stopping 29 of 30 shots for his CIS-leading 13th victory. At the other end of the rink Bryce O’Hagen performed well despite allowing seven goals, stopped 30 shots on the evening.
 
“[Unice is] the backbone of our team right now and he has been for a couple of years. This team is only going to go as far as a few key guys will lead us and he’s definitely one of those key guys,” said Powers.
 
Western now gets set for a string of road games with their next four contests all happening away from the Thompson Arena. First up are the Waterloo Warriors this coming Friday with game time set for 7:30 in Waterloo.