WATERLOO, Ont. — Kyle De Coste returned to the Mustangs lineup to score the game-winner and Stefan Salituro chipped in with three points on Tuesday night, as the Mustangs bounced back from allowing three goals in the first period to beat Laurier 4-3 at Sun Life Financial Arena.
 
It was a solid win for the Mustangs, who were coming off a heartbreaking double-overtime loss to Lakehead on Saturday. Western now sits just four points back of first-place Windsor and will have a chance to narrow that gap to two when they play the Lancers tomorrow night.
 
With the OUA's top team on tap for Wednesday night, the Mustangs had to make sure they were focused on the task at hand on Tuesday when they hit the ice against the OUA's third-worst team in Laurier— a team that has been decimated by injuries all season. The Golden Hawks proved early that they weren't going to make it easy for the Mustangs either, peppering Marc Nother with 13 shots during the opening frame and scoring on three of those. 
 
The first of those goals came just 55 second into the game, as Tyler Stothers took a feed from teammate Luke Hietkamp and beat Nother to open the scoring. Not to be outdone, Western responded just 20 seconds later with a goal from Salituro before Steve Reese gave the Mustangs their first lead of the game on the power play five minutes later.
 
But Laurier showed they weren't going to be pushed around, scoring twice before the end of the frame to take a 3-2 lead into the intermission. To make their bounce back even more impressive, both of those tallies came from blueliners, as Matt Provost scored just over nine minutes in before Mackenzie Braid closed out the period with a power play marker at 18:52.
 
In the end, however, the game would be won in the second period, as Luke Karaim tied the game on a feed from Matt Paltridge midway through the frame before De Coste cashed in on the power play with less than a minute left. De Coste's goal, his fifth, put the cherry on top of an excellent, two-for-three night on the power play for the Mustangs.
 
The win marked Marc Nother's third in as many appearances, as the third-year backstop has proven that he can step up when needed this season. Despite allowing three goals early, Nother bounced back in a big way throughout the rest of the game, turning aside 14 shots in the middle frame before sealing the deal with seven saves in the third.
 
His counterpart for Laurier, Christopher Festarini, was exceptional for the Golden Hawks on Tuesday, finishing with a whopping 43 saves on 47 shots. It's fair to say that the rookie goaltender caught Western at a bad time, as the Mustangs have fired a total of 100 shots at opposition goaltenders over their last two games.
 
Western won't have much time to savour the win, as they hit the road for Windsor tomorrow to face off against the Lancers. Both teams will be looking to head into the break, as the game is the last of 2014 for both teams. Game time is set for 7:30 p.m.
 
Notes
Another multi-point night for Reese, who finished with a goal and an assist after having his line held off the scoresheet against Lakehead on Saturday. He now sits fourth in the OUA with 23 points on the year and first in the OUA in power play goals with six… Adam McKee was absent from the lineup for the second straight game Tuesday… Matt Herskovitz has now made five straight appearances as a forward for the Mustangs after getting limited playing time early in the season.