Box Score LONDON, Ont. – Western fought back from two one-goal deficits but Peter Macintosh spoiled Greg Dodds' home-debut with under a second left on the clock, slipping the puck past the Mustangs netminder giving Laurier a 3-2 victory at Thompson Arena on Friday night.
 
The goal left both the Mustangs and their 433 fans in attendance shocked, grasping to understand how a game that seemed destined for overtime only seconds earlier could end so quickly. When asked whether he had ever seen a game end like that in his 14 years of coaching, Mustangs' coach Clarke Singer shook his head.
 
"Not like that, no," Singer said, summing up the feelings of many of the fans and players who witnessed the goal.
 
Western opened the game strong, dominating play for the better half of the first five minutes before Laurier began to find their feet and truly test Dodds. With momentum shifting a bit in their direction, the Golden Hawks were able to grab themselves a power play opportunity when Matt Marantz was assessed the game's first infraction just under seven minutes in.
 
Yet despite being down a man, the Mustangs managed to make the best of the situation for the first half of the penalty, keeping the Golden Hawks to the perimeter and even generating some offensive chances of their own, highlighted by a breakaway opportunity for Matt Clarke. 
 
Unfortunately for the Mustangs, however, Clarke's chance was stymied by a great save from Laurier's goaltender and soon a boarding call to Adam Stoykewych had them down 5-on-3. But thanks to some solid goaltending from Dodds and a timely block from Colin Macdonald, Western was able to kill the penalty off and take momentum back for the rest of the period.
 
Even with the momentum on their side, though, the Mustangs were unable to capitalize in the frame, thanks in large part to the stellar play of Laurier backstop Vinny Merante. Merante turned away 17 shots in total in the opening period, including a scramble stop on a 2-on-1 opportunity from Marantz that saw the rookie forward keep and fool the netminder with a deke—only to be stopped by a mixture of pad and post. 
 
"You know what, [Merante] played a great game," Singer said of the Golden Hawks' goaltender after the loss. "I didn't think we did enough around him creating traffic and getting rebounds. I thought we did create some chances but we didn't do enough around him to make it count."
 
In the second period the teams traded penalties in the opening 10 minutes and then again in the second half, although the only goal of the period—scored by Laurier's Tyler Stother—did not end up coming on the man-advantage. Stother notched his fifth tally of the year just before the midpoint of the period, using a Western defender as a screen and ripping the puck past a helpless Dodds.
 
Other than on Stother's shot, Dodds was unbeatable for the rest of the period, ensuring himself no lack of excitement, coming out of the net to clear a puck at the blue line near the end of the period only to find himself caught out of the net. Thanks to a nice stick from his defender and a quick move of his shoulder, Dodds was able to keep the puck out, despite having to make the awkward save at the top of the faceoff circles.
 
In the third, the Mustangs came out intent on evening the score and were able to do just that, finally solving Merante on a shot from Alex Micallef just under two minutes into the period. Micallef's goal, his first of the season, came from outside the left faceoff dot, beating Merante on his far side.
 
The teams then traded goals in the second half of the period, with Laurier scoring first and Kyle De Coste tying the game up with just over three minutes left. With time clicking down on the clock, both goaltenders were forced to make game-saving plays as Dodds made a pad save on a Laurier breakaway and Merante answered with a save on Clarke 14 seconds later.
 
The game looked to be going to overtime before the Golden Hawks' Brendan Woods slipped a pass to Macintosh. Macintosh, standing uncovered in front of the net, put the game away on a shot to Dodds' glove side with a second left on the clock. The Mustangs and their fans could only stare in disbelief.
 
Mustangs play-by-play man John Urban perhaps said it best post-gamewhen he asked Singer if the Mustangs will have to have a "goldfish's memory" after tonight, seeing as their next game is set to happen only 24 hours later. Singer agreed.
 
"It's a day at a time," Singer said. "We talked about how tough this game was going to be and we didn't get the job done but tomorrow night it's going to be another tough game—we've got to be better. We were okay tonight—we weren't good enough obviously, so we've got to be good."
 
Tomorrow's game will begin at 7:00 p.m. at Thompson arena and will see the Mustangs attempt to topple the first-ranked Thunderwolves, who also played Friday night, falling to Brock 4-3 in an overtime thriller. Fans from across the world can watch all the action live on Mustangs TV.