A five game win streak has the Mustangs (16-6-0) sitting first place in the OUA West—one point ahead of Lakehead (15-6-1) and two ahead of third-place Ryerson (15-8-0)—and eighth on the CIS' weekly Top Ten, marking the first time since November 26 that Western has been featured on the list. 

The Mustangs began the season ranked third on the CIS Top Ten, holding that position for two weeks until they slowly began their fall off the list in late October. Western's journey up and down the weekly rankings has been indicative of the rollercoaster of a season that the Mustangs have had so far, as they found themselves unable to win more than three games in a row before breaking out in the new year and registering five consecutive victories.

When probed after Saturday night's game about what's been different during their current streak, Mustangs head coach Clarke Singer suggested that there isn't one exact reason.

"Probably not one major thing but lots of little things… just a lot of movement forward in a lot of areas," Singer said. "There's small margins between winning and losing [in this league] and we found ourselves not finding the extra inch before Christmas and now we just seem to be finding it—things seem to be going our way so we've just got to hopefully keep the ball rolling."

Despite Singer's reluctance to point out one reason, a big part of the Mustangs resurgence has to be credited to their recent efficiency on special teams. Western has moved into second place in the league in overall power play percentage at 26.3% and, since the New Year, the Mustangs have gone a whopping 11-for-30 (36.6%) with the man advantage, thanks in large part to a 4-for-7 effort against the Varsity Blues on Saturday night.

But even after Saturday's big return, Singer was quick to point out that his team's power play success doesn't mean that he's satisfied with where they are at overall. 

 "Yeah, but then you go 'why aren't we scoring five on five?'" Singer said when asked whether he's pleased with his team's recent power play success. "If it's not one thing it's another. Certainly special teams are so important in the playoffs—usually the team that win the special teams win the games. We've got to make sure we keep working on it. But it's nice to see for sure."

Perhaps even more impressive than their recent success on the power play, however, is their massive improvement on the penalty kill. Western's season kill percentage is nothing to get excited about—at 83.7% it's good enough to put them at 10 in the OUA—but what it doesn't show you is just how efficient they've been in recent games; in the seven games that the Mustangs have played since the New Year, they have killed 31 of 32 power plays for a miraculous kill percentage of 96.8%, 13 points higher than their season total.

What could possibly be going so right for the Mustangs penalty kill? Well, the outstanding play of starting netminder Josh Unice, for one thing. Unice, who has started all five of the games during the Mustangs current win-streak, has established a seven game win-streak of his own while compiling a .956 save percentage and a 1.42 goals against average during that time. In comparison, in the ten games before November Unice lost four, was pulled twice, and had put up a .907 save percentage and a 3.2 goals against average.

Now, the fifth-year goaltender sits second in the OUA in wins with 12, seventh in save percentage at .927%, and ninth in goals against average at 2.58. At 976 minutes on the season, Unice is also one of only eight goalies in the OUA to log more than 900 minutes, sitting second among those eight goalies in save percentage and third in goals against average.

"Josh was playing good, now he's playing great," said Head Coach Clarke Singer after Saturday's win. "He's gone from playing good to playing great and he's been the best goaltender in most of those nights we've won eight of nine. He's got to keep playing well for us to be successful." 

On offence, the Mustangs have also been hot lately, with five players turning in multi-point nights on Saturday and four players currently sporting point streaks longer than two games. Those players are Zach Harnden (6g and 8a over seven game streak), Daniel Erlich (2g and 12a over seven game streak), Kyle De Coste (5g and 2a over three game streak), and Steve Reese (4g and 7a over last five). And while Matt Clarke may only have a two game point streak going, his five assists on Saturday give him six assists in those last two games alone.

Clarke, Erlich, and Harnden now all sit among the OUA scoring leaders with 34, 39, and 33 points, respectively. Erlich, who currently sits second in the leagu in scoring, was asked after the game against Toronto whether there is any rivalry between the three.

"No, definitely not, but it's always good having a little bit of competition internally," Erlich said. "It pushes everybody to be better, so as long as all of us are producing and as long as we're getting wins out there I think we're all going to be really happy."

Western at Waterloo – Friday, January 31 at 7:30 p.m. – Watch Live via the Warriors Webcast

Western and Waterloo have already met once this season, when the Mustangs handed the Warriors a 5-4 loss at home on October 26, although if there's one thing to be learned from the recent history of these two teams it's that it doesn't matter who has won or is winning the season series when they meet, only who shows up on game day. Last year, Western went 3-0 against the Warriors in the regular season only to be stunned by them in the OUA Quarterfinals, losing 2-1 in their best of three series. 

Sitting in eighth, the Warriors aren't far off where they ended last season either, as they finished 2012-13 in sixth place before making a run to the OUA finals in February. They'll have a chance to improve that standing before welcoming Western too, as they travel to Guelph on Thursday night to take on the Gryphons.

On offence, the Warriors have only one player in the OUA's top ten scorers but two more in the top 15. Justin Larson (14g, 20a) sits fourth in the league, tied with the Mustangs Matt Clarke at 34 points, while his teammates Colin Behenna and rookie Chris Chappell are standing at 12 and 13 with 29 and 28 points, respectively.

In goal, the Warriors are led by the duo of Justin Leclerc and rookie Mike Morrison, who both have played in 10 games and have over 600 minutes logged on the season. Statistically, Morrison has been the better of the two with a goals against average 57 points lower (2.85), a save percentage four points higher (.909), and four more wins on the season (7). On top of that, Morrison has been spectacular in his last two games, going 1-0-1 while registering a .977 save percentage, a 1.00 goals against average, and one shutout.

Game time is set for 7:30 p.m. on Friday night in Waterloo.

Guelph at Western – Saturday, February 1 at 7:00 p.m. – Watch Live on Mustangs TV

The Guelph Gryphons won't have to wait too long to avenge their 4-0 loss at the hands of Western on January 23, as they'll travel to London on Saturday to try and return the favour. In their only other game since playing Western, however, things didn't get much better for the Gryphons as they lost 5-2 to York on Saturday and are now mired in a four game losing streak, their longest of the season.

If there was one encouraging sign to come out of the loss to the Lions, however, it would be that the Gryphons went 2-for-7 on the power play while not allowing a single power play goal on six York opportunities. Guelph's penalty kill units will have to be back on top of their game on Saturday if they're going to have any chance to beat the Mustangs, as Western's power play has been red hot as of late.

With an assist on Saturday, Gryphons' leading scorer Nicklas Huard reached 30 points for the first time in his two-year OUA career and passed his mark of 15 helpers last season. The sophomore forward has taken a big step forward this season, passing his 2012-13 point total of 26 against the Windsor Lancers on January, ten games earlier than it took him last year. 

Prior to Saturday's game members of the 1963-64 Mustangs men's hockey team will be honoured at Thompson Arena as the team, who's 10-1 record in 63-64 led to the Mustangs joining the OQAA the following season, celebrates its 50th anniversary as part of Mustang Days. Puck drop is set for 7:00 p.m. on Saturday.