The Western women's hockey team prepares for their final regular season road trip of the year as they head to Toronto to face York on Friday followed by UOIT in Oshawa on Saturday. The squad enters this weekend's road games on a three-game win streak with all three victories being played on the road. 

The Mustangs have been road warriors this season taking two away-game wins last weekend against the Laurentian Voyageurs and Nipissing Lakers, improving to 7-3 when skating in enemy territory this season.  During the streak the purple and white have lit the lamp 12 times while the defence has been just as strong, surrendering only four goals at the other end of the rink.  Western's goaltending tandem of Kelly Campbell and Olivia Ross have each registered a shutout performance during the win streak while allowing only two goals each.

Forward Ally Galloway (4-2-6) is on a hot streak of her own, registering goals in each of the last three games, while defenceman Brianna Iazzolino (3-4-7) has been the Mustangs secret weapon with the man advantage. She notched a power play goal in both of last weekend's contests while also adding an assist.

The Western squad has a reason to be confident heading into this weekend's games against last place York (4-11-2) and sixth place UOIT (9-7-1) but will need to remain focused if they hope to bring home another four points this weekend. 

Despite their three-game win streak, the purple and white remain in fifth place in the OUA with a record of 10-6-1. With only seven games remaining, the team is four points behind the fourth-place Toronto Varsity and will be looking to climb the standings and secure home ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

Western vs. York – Friday, January 17 at 7 PM

Despite being tied with Ryerson for last place, the York Lions are coming off of two outstanding performances against top teams in the league.  After beating Toronto (12-4-1) last Friday by a score of 4-2, the Lions took the top ranked Queen's Gaels (13-2-3) to overtime before falling by a score of 2-1. The Lions have struggled on home ice this season with only one win at home, a problem they will have to overcome if they hope to avenge the 4-3 loss Western handed them in mid-October at Thompson Arena.

York will look to forward Andrea Joyce to get the job done against the Western defence as she leads the team in scoring with seven goals and three assists on the season. The Lions will also be hoping for defenceman Kristina Barabara (4-5-9) to stay hot as she is on a two-game point streak with a goal and an assist so far in 2014.

The Lions will likely start Megan Lee in net since she has played the majority of the games for York this season, posting a competitive .913 save percentage after already making 432 saves in only 14 games played.

Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. on Friday night at Canlan Ice Sports arena in Toronto.

Western vs. UOIT – Saturday, January 18 at 3:30 PM

The UOIT Ridgebacks started 2014 with a win last Thursday on the road against Ryerson to improve to 5-4-1 over their last ten outings.  UOIT is tied with Windsor for sixth place in the OUA with both teams sharing a 9-7-1 record.  The Ridgebacks will be happily welcoming Western into their home building on Saturday, knowing they have already beaten the Mustangs this season by a score of 3-1 in mid-October at Thompson Arena.  Another regulation win over the purple and white would tie them in the standings as Western holds on to fifth place by a margin of only two points.  The two teams not only have similar records but have also surrendered the same number of goals this season at 36.  The edge in scoring goes to the Ridgebacks as they have outscored the Mustangs 50-40 on the year.

This scoring advantage for the Ridgebacks can be partly credited to Jaclyn Gibson who leads the offensive charge with eight goals and 21 points, good for a sixth-place tie in the OUA for scoring this season.

Defensively, rookie goalie Tori Campbell boasts a 1.74 goals against average through 12 games played this season.  That may give UOIT the edge over their competition in net; however Kelly Campbell (1.90 GAA) does have a higher save percentage because she has faced significantly more shots, stopping 346 pucks compared to Tori Campbell's 219 saves.

The game is set for Saturday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. and will be played at the Campus ICE Centre in Oshawa.