Box Score LONDON, Ont. – The Mustangs played a hard fought 60 minutes but fell behind 2-0 at the end of the first period and never recovered, falling 4-1 to the Toronto Varsity Blues Saturday afternoon at Thompson Arena.
 
After the game, associate coach Ted Brown spoke about the type of competition that comes with playing a team like Toronto.
 
"I think it's a physical game, both Toronto and Western are physical teams," Brown said. "We play the body and that's what we teach our players and obviously Vicky [Sunohara, Toronto's coach] teaches her players the same thing. This probably could be a first round playoff matchup [and] I really think we held our own."
 
The team played relatively well, but their lack of offensive production proved to be costly. Team scoring leader Stacey Scott was not in the lineup due to an injury she suffered in yesterday's win over Ryerson.
 
The first period of action featured both teams speed and transition game as they battled it out on the ice.  The Blues held control of the puck early, playing most of the first half of the period in the Mustangs end.  The purple and white did well to clamp up defensively however, killing off both of their penalties while netminder Kelly Campbell made a tremendous save on a deflected shot from the point on Toronto's second opportunity. 
 
All seemed to be well under control, with Western outshooting the Blues 11-10 until the Mustangs got caught behind the play with less than two minutes to play in the period.  Toronto's Brind'Amour-Mclure sisters were both in on a sharp passing play down low in the slot that set up Amanda Ricker for the opening goal of the game. 
 
The tic-tac-toe play seemed to shock the Mustangs as they allowed another goal only seconds later as Jacqueline Scheffel hacked a puck near the front of the net that somehow found its way through Campbell, who had played quite strongly up until that point.  The quick scoring surge sent the purple and white to the dressing room down 2-0 with lots to think about.
 
Western came out flying to start the second with Katelyn Gosling firing a shot hard off the post, just narrowly missing the net. Things soon quickly took a turn for the worst, however, when they purple and white ran into penalty trouble. 
 
With Megan Taylor already in the box on a tripping minor, Sydney Kidd took Toronto's Amanda Ricker hard into the boards.  Ricker remained down on the ice as trainers and paramedics took the ice to attend to her injury.  Kidd received a major penalty for hitting from behind and a game misconduct.
 
Following the 20-minute delay the Mustangs managed to fend off the Varsity Blues' ferocious attack for the remainder of the advantage, but Toronto eventually found the twine on yet another man-advantage opportunity with just about five minutes left in the period.  Kelly O'Hanlon tapped home a loose rebound at the side of the net for her 22 point of the season, which is good enough to lead her team in scoring.
 
Despite falling down 3-0, the Mustangs defence yielded only a few chances in the second, playing a hard fought and fairly physical game.  They received little help at the other end of the ice though, as the Toronto Varsity stymied the Western offence for a second consecutive frame. 
 
The physical style of play continued into the third period as both teams took turns heading to the penalty box.  The result was fast paced end-to-end action that ultimately allowed Western the opportunity to get on the board.  On their seventh and final power play opportunity the Mustangs were finally able to set up in the offensive zone, cycling the puck across the blue line. Katelyn Gosling set up Jessica Sorensen for the one-timer from the top of the left circle and she wired the puck top corner over Nicole Testeris' blocker.  
 
The goal seemed to give the Mustangs some energy but there wasn't enough time left in the game to complete the comeback.  Toronto's Ragan Danford scored an empty netter with :26 seconds remaining to put the game away.
 
With the loss Western slides to sixth place in the OUA as they prepare for another home game tomorrow against Windsor.  The Lancers are hot on the Mustangs' heels and the game will have a major impact on standings with the regular season quickly coming to a close. 
 
Coach Brown is well aware of its importance and talked after the game about how his team will prepare for the contest.
 
"We'll regroup tomorrow, go over video, talk to the players, start fresh that's what we can do," Brown said. "We'll tell the girls: it's a new game – its time to start over. Windsor is a very good team, very well coached. Jim hunter is a very good coach. They just lost 3-2 to Toronto last night, so we'll definitely have our hands full. "
 
Tomorrow's afternoon game against Windsor is the Mustangs third game in as many days.  The game was originally set to take place last weekend but was rescheduled due to inclement weather that impeded Windsor from attending.  The puck is set to drop Sunday at Thompson Arena at 4:00 p.m.