LONDON, Ont. -- A pair of two-goal nights from Drew Palmer and Kenny Bradford gave Windsor the edge Friday night as the Lancers controlled the play on their way to a 5-1 victory over the Western Mustangs Friday night at Thompson Arena.

"[Windsor's] a good team," said head coach Clarke Singer after the game. "You don't play a good game, you're not going to win in this league. It doesn't matter who you play. They were ready for us and we weren't ready for them."

Going into Friday night's game, the Mustangs had a chance to move into a tie with the Lancers for fourth place in the OUA West division, as they sat in fifth with 16 points. But two first period goals from the Lancers caused a shift in the momentum, a shift from which the Mustangs were unable to recover.

"I just think we didn't have much game tonight," Singer said. "Usually we have a good, hard-working game but we didn't have a whole lot tonight. We were pretty loose in all three zones and we just didn't do enough good things to win. You've got to pay the price and we didn't pay the price tonight at all."

Although the Lancers did finish the first period with a two-goal advantage, the score wasn't necessarily indicative of who controlled the play in the period. After giving up the first goal to Palmer 7:18 into the frame, the Mustangs appeared to take control for the last half only to surrender the second goal to Palmer with 15 seconds left. 

The line of Matt Clarke, Steve Reese, and Kyle De Coste surged onto the ice in the second, keeping the puck in Windsor's zone for the first minute of the frame. Western's momentum continued for at least another minute with the Mustangs top line picking up where Clarke, Reese and De Coste left off.

That momentum looked like it might finally pay off when Windsor took a hooking penalty 3:58 into the period, giving the Mustangs their first man-advantage of the game. But, thanks to a shorthanded 3-on-1 and a lucky bounce off a stick, the Lancers were the ones able to capitalise with Kenny Bradford scoring his sixth of the year 1:14 into the infraction.

Despite the shorthanded setback, the Mustangs capitalised on Bradford's penalty, getting a goal from Matt Marantz five seconds before Windsor was set to return to full-strength. Unfortunately Bradford would kill any Mustangs momentum five minutes later, notching his second of the night to give the Lancers a 4-1 advantage and chasing Unice from the net.

With Greg Dodds standing in for Unice in the cage, the Mustangs came back out in the third looking to turn the game around but just couldn't seem to get an edge.

Singer acknowledged after the game that putting Dodds in was an attempt to energize his team and that they did not respond to the change in the way he had hoped.

"We thought maybe getting Greg in there would jump start us a little bit," Singer said. "You've got to try those things; I mean it's always still a game in this league with the fire power we have. We just couldn't generate anything."

He was also quick to add that despite giving up four goals on 16 shots, the blame for the loss was hardly on Unice's shoulders.

"Josh is a warrior for us and he's one of the best goalies in the country," said Singer. "It certainly wasn't his night tonight and I think he'd even probably admit that."

Regardless of whether the team responded to Dodds entering the game, when the Lancers did get chances he was there to shut the door, turning away all eight shots in the third period on top of his one save in the second. The rookie goaltender made a pair of nice glove saves in the final frame, snagging a shot from the high slot 57 seconds in, then doing the same seven minutes later.

With Dodds providing security in net, the Mustangs fired 11 shots on Van Buskirk but were unable to find the twine and initiate a comeback. After the Lancers took a penalty with 3:02 remaining, Singer pulled Dodds and Windsor subsequently took advantage, scoring an empty-netter with four seconds left to make it 5-1.

Western won't have much time to lick their wounds, as they'll travel to North Bay's Memorial Gardens to take on the Nipissing Lakers at 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 1. With his team mired in a two-game losing streak, Singer certainly didn't mince his words when talking about the importance of the game against the Lakers.

"Biggest game of the year," Singer said. "I mean we've got to find a way to get the win. I don't know whether it's going to be 7-6 or 2-1 or 1-0 in a shootout but we've got to find a way to get that win."