Western Mustangs Sports

LONDON, Ont. — Freshman Trent Ouellette capped off the Mustangs four-goal first period with the first tally of his OUA career as Western bounced back from an early deficit to win their season-opener 5-2 over the Guelph Gryphons at Thompson Arena on Friday night.
 
Ouellette's first goal was a bit of a lucky one, coming off a dump-in shot from the blue-line that caught Guelph backstop Keith Hamilton off guard. But as if to make up for that flukey first goal, the first-year player from Drumheller, Alberta outdid himself to start the second frame, keeping on a two-on-one and roofing a bullet of a wrist-shot for the Mustangs fifth and final goal. 
 
After the game, Mustangs' assistant coach David Kontzie pointed out that Ouellette's play on Friday night was indicative of what Western has come to expect from their rookie players so far this year.
 
"The first year players have played very well all pre-season— pretty much all of them bring something a little bit different in terms of a style of play," Kontzie said post-game. "[Ouellette] had a couple great chances today— he was able to bury a couple goals. The one goal, he probably won't score like that again in the league— their goalie's going to want that back…[but] it's good to see a young player get a couple goals and you get the season off on the right foot for him."
 
Friday night's game marked the second time that the two teams had faced off this fall, as the Mustangs beat the Gryphons 4-2 on September 19 in a tune-up game—their first meeting since Western eliminated Guelph in the first round of the 2014 OUA playoffs. When asked post-game what the Mustangs might have learned from that preseason battle, Kontzie noted that you can always expect much of the same from the Gryphons.
 
"Guelph is a very well-coached team," Kontzie said. "They work tremendously hard, they stay within their game plan pretty much every night, so we knew that they were going to come at us [and] we achieved what we wanted to."
 
Guelph certainly came out hard in the first period, as Western and their netminder, Greg Dodds, had a tough start to the night and the OUA season in general. The sophomore let in an early goal from Guelph's Andres Kopstals—whose shot deflected off the outreached stick of the Mustangs defender— before firing the puck over the glass for a delay of game penalty just three minutes later. However, Kontzie was quick to shoot down the notion that nerves played a part in Dodds' tough start, chalking the goal and the penalty up to tough luck instead.
 
"Dodds isn't a goaltender who can get rattled with nerves or anything like that," Kontzie said. "[The first goal] was a shot that, you know, got by him— call it what you want— I don't think it was nerves at all, it was just one of those things that got by him." 
 
Western would kill off Dodds' infraction and then some, forcing Guelph to take two penalties before they got their own player back. A nifty pass from Alex Micallef to Julian Cimadamore helped draw the second penalty, as Kopstals got his stick up to give the Mustangs a 5-on-3 opportunity and— thanks to a crisp passing play on the ensuing power play from Kyle De Coste to Steve Reese at the side of the net— their first goal of the game.
 
Reese would be robbed on another one-time chance four minutes later, teeing up the feed from Stefan Salituro on the 2-on-1 only to be robbed by Hamilton's pad. Despite the save, Guelph was forced to take another penalty on the play and Western made them pay for it, as Cimadamore sent the puck into the netting just 17 seconds into the infraction to give the Mustangs their first lead of the game.
 
Play stoppages were numbered after that tally, with the two teams trading off a number of odd-man rushes before Mustangs' sophomore Noah Schwartz was able to end one of those rushes with a goal, using a screen to beat Hamilton from the high slot. Cimadamore earned the primary assist on the goal and would finish the game with two points, kicking off the 2014 season with a bang after a 2013 season that saw him record just four points in 16 games.
 
In his first OUA season-opening start, Dodds had a tough kick of the can at times, but he also showed more than a few glimpses of what made him one of the most reliable backups in the OUA last season. His roller-coaster of a night would be exemplified in the last five minutes of the second period when, after having a shot from the goal line bounce in off the back of his leg, he made a highlight reel stop in tight to keep the score at 5-2 heading into the third.
 
He would continue his strong play in the final frame, making a nice shoulder save on an early 2-on-1 before finishing off a pretty passing play from Guelph with a nice save in close. The Wingham, Ontario native would stop all shots he faced in the third to finish the game with 19 saves and his first win of the 2014 season.

The Mustangs will be back on the ice on Saturday night for their second game in as many nights, as they prepare to welcome the Brock Badgers to Thompson Arena. Puck drop is set for 7:00 p.m. 
 
Notes
 
Ouellette's play on opening night can be seen as a continuation of a hot-streak that stretches back to his impressive playoff performance last season, which saw him lead his hometown Drumheller Dragons to the AJHL's League Finals while putting up 18 points in 17 games… Guelph's leading scorer from last season, Niklas Huard, was held off the scoresheet on Friday. The North Bay, Ontario native finished with 37 points last year, good enough for eighth in the OUA and 14th in the CIS. For the most part, Western was able to shut Huard down during last year's regular season, limiting him to just one goal over two regular season games, although that goal was the game-winner in Western's heartbreaking 7-6 overtime loss on February 1… The two teams have met for a preseason game in Komoka for the past two seasons, with Western taking both meetings by a score of 4-2… Rookie defenceman Jake Worrad assisted on Reese's first-period goal to earn the first point of his OUA career. He also added his first OUA penalty on the night.