After narrowly eliminating one team that gave them a fair share of trouble this year in the Guelph Gryphons, Western now turns their attention to another such team as they head into the OUA West Semi-Finals at Thompson Arena on Thursday night: the Windsor Lancers.  The Lancers and the Mustangs have had a season series to write home about this year, taking turns laying a five-goal beating on each other in the first half of the season and having the experience of a lifetime playing outdoors at Comerica Park during the Sirius XM Winter Classic Festiva in December.

Western got the last laugh in the two-game season series, winning the game at Comerica park by a score of 5-2 on the strength of Josh Unice's 39-save performance to avenge a similar 5-1 loss at the hands of the Lancers on November 28. In the end, of course, regular season victories have no bearing on the playoffs, and ultimately the true winner will be decided in a thrilling best-of-three series.

That series will begin at Thompson Arena on Thursday night at 7:00 p.m. before shifting to Windsor on Saturday for game two. Game three—if required—will be played Sunday at 7:00 p.m. at Thompson Arena. The Lancers will enter the series on five days of rest, compared to the Mustangs three, as they made quick work of Toronto in the first round, cruising by with scores of 3-2 and 5-2.

Game One: Western vs. Windsor - Thursday, February 27 at 7 PM  Watch live on Mustangs TV
Game Two: Western at Windsor - Saturday, March 1 at 7:30 PM
Game Three (if neccessary): Western vs. Windsor - Sunday, March 2 at 7 PM 

Leading Windsor through both of those victories was netminder Parker Van Buskirk, who continued his regular season success, stopping 58 of 62 shots for a save percentage of .935. Sitting tied with Van Buskirk in save percentage is Western's Josh Unice, who registered an identical percentage through Western's three game first-round series.

It's not the first time this season that Van Buskirk and Unice find themselves tied in an OUA category. The two goaltenders finished the regular season tied at the top of the OUA wins leaderboard with 16 apiece, although Windsor's veteran goaltender appeared in five more games. Unice had the edge in both goals against average and save percentage too, finishing with a 2.56 GAA compared to Van Buskirk's 2.66 and compiling a save percentage of .927% that was slightly higher than van Buskirk's .920%.

Nonetheless, it's clear that the Mustangs are going to be up against a tough goaltender come Thursday night. Van Buskirk has never made life easy for his playoff opponents during his three years playing for Windsor; in 17 post season appearances so far, he has compiled an impressive .932 save percentage on his way to winning 11 of those games. 

On offense, the Lancers are being led in points so far this post season by Derek Lanoue and Evan Stibbard, who both have three. Both players had multi-point nights in their second game against Toronto, with Lanoue scoring a goal and an assist and Stibbard adding a tally and two assists to propel their team over the Varsity Blues.

As for Spencer Pommells, Windsor's leading scorer during the regular season with 32 points, he's close behind with two points, registering a helper in game one before adding a goal in game two. In his three year tenure with the Lancers Pommells has managed just over a point-per-game pace during the post season, as he now has 19 points through 17 games.

While Windsor only has two players—Lanoue and Stibbard—who have managed three points so far this offseason, the Mustangs have seven,  although the purple and white have played one extra game. Nonetheless, the Mustangs have been scoring by committee so far this post season, led by Zach Harnden, Daniel Erlich, and Steve Reese, who all have five points. Harnden has three goals and one helper through three games while Erlich and Reese both have four assists. 

Even more impressive, two of the Mustangs' point-per-game players are defensemen, as Colin MacDonald has registered three assists while Matt Paltridge has compiled a goal and two assists. Macdonald, a rookie, is proving quickly that he can step up when needed, as his three assists are only one less than the four assists he put up through 28 regular season games. Paltridge, on the other hand, needs no introduction, as the veteran blueliner has nine points through 28 post-season games.

In net, Unice has been solid for the Mustangs so far in the playoffs. After letting in five goals in Western's tough 5-4 game one loss and snapping his eleven game win streak, the veteran netminder has stopped 67 of 69 shots for a .971 save percentage to start an entirely new streak. Historically, there is more than enough reason to believe that Unice is a goaltender who shows up when it counts; for starters, not only is his career post-season save percentage an impressive .927%, it's also five points higher than his career regular season average of .922%.  

Individual performers aside, if the Mustangs want to have an easier time against the Lancers than they did against the Gryphons then they may have to click on their struggling power play. Western turned around their power play at the beginning of the New Year, powering themselves to second place in the OUA with a success rate of 24.6%, but struggled with the man advantage against Guelph going just 1-for-14. On a more positive note, the Mustangs have continued to have success on the penalty kill, holding Guelph to just one goal on nine attempts during the first round.