Box Score LONDON, Ont. - The regular season concluded with a dramatic overtime win for the Western Mustangs men's hockey team as they skated away with a 5-4 victory and their fourth consecutive win after facing the Brock Badgers on Saturday evening at Thompson Arena.
 
With both teams already guaranteed a playoff position, the contest served as a battle of pride after the Mustangs earned a 5-2 victory in the two teams' last matchup on January 17 in St. Catharines.
 
"It's a tough game motivationally knowing that we had first sewed up and the Badgers battled hard," said head coach Clarke Singer. "We gave up a fair bit and didn't play as tactically as we wanted. I thought the last five minutes we played well and obviously overtime went our way. Josh played great, he made some big saves when we needed them."
 
Western netminder Josh Unice turned away 35 of 39 shots he faced in the game while Brock goaltender Real Cormier stopped 48 of 52 attempts, a career high, as the Western offence pummeled him with shots on goal.

Steve Reese and Daniel Erlich both recorded three points in the contest to lead the Mustangs offence while McKee and Marantz added two each on the day. Erlich's three points give him 50 on the year and make him this season's CIS regular season scoring champion, finishing two points ahead of Saskatchewan's Derek Hulak.
 
Despite being outshot by the Mustangs it would be Brock that opened the scoring as Jeff MacPherson put the Badgers up by one just five minutes into the game. The first period set the tone of a physical matchup as the teams recorded a total of eight penalties in the first frame, five of which came from the away team. Despite the penalties, Western was unable to capitalize on any of their power play opportunities and the Brock goal would be the only one of the period to give the Badgers a 1-0 lead at the end of the first.
 
Captain Steven Reese would get the purple and white on the score sheet and tie the game at one goal apiece at the five-minute of the second period mark with assists from Kyle De Coste and Julian Cimadamore. It was end-to-end rushes in the second as both teams had plenty of opportunities to break the tie but Unice and Cormier wouldn't let anything past. It was the line of Adam McKee, Matt Clarke and Daniel Erlich to finally give the Mustangs a one-goal lead at 11:22 after McKee put away a rebound to make it 2-1 for the home side. A Brock four-minute high sticking penalty late in the second gave the Mustangs a man advantage and although Cormier would turn away five shots on the penalty kill the sixth would be the charm as Matt Marantz netted the team's third goal of the contest off of assists from Stefan Salituro and McKee to give the Mustangs a two-goal lead heading into the third.
 
The purple and white took two consecutive penalties to start the first three minutes of the frame, killing off the first but were unable to clear the second as Sammy Banga notched his first of the game to reduce the Mustangs lead to one with 15 minutes left in the action. Brock kept the pressure on, keeping the play largely in the Western zone and it would pay off at 11:30 when MacPherson scored his second of the day with both teams at full strength to tie the game. The Badgers counted another power play goal just under a minute later from Matt Abercrombie to give the Badgers their second advantage of the contest.
 
Despite being down a man late in the frame thanks to a slashing penalty against Kyle De Coste the Mustangs penalty kill proved to be unrelenting, killing off the man advantage and it paid off shortly thereafter as the Mustangs turned a breakaway into a goal as Marantz scored his second of the night with just over 90 seconds left in the period to force the game into overtime.
 
Five minutes would be all the Mustangs needed to seal the deal when a flawless one-timer from Clarke found the back of the net at 4:19 with a beautiful assist from Erlich - his third of the night - and Stephen Gaskin to give the Mustangs a 5-4 overtime victory.
 
With the regular season in the books the Mustangs now look ahead to their playoff schedule that begins with the OUA West Division Quarterfinal.
 
"Nothing else matters now, it's playoffs," said Singer after the game. "The regular season is over and now it's time to focus on playoffs and play the best we can. We're looking forward to it. Regardless of who we play in the post-season you have to play great or you're not going to make it on. We've played all the teams really tight this year and either way it's going to be a fabulous series."
 
The Mustangs are back on the ice on February 20 when they host the first game of their best-of-three OUA Quarterfinal series at Thompson Arena.