Box Score LONDON, Ont. – Adam McKee finished off a brilliant passing play for the game winning goal two minutes into the third and Josh Unice was strong in net, turning away 37 of 40 shots to help lead Western over Lakehead 4-3 on Friday night at Thompson Arena.
 
The victory over the Thunderwolves doubles the Mustangs lead over their division rivals, as Western now sits four points ahead of Lakehead with three games left for both teams on the regular season schedule.  
 
"I thought we played pretty well," said Mustangs head coach Clarke Singer after the game. "It was a good bounce back I thought after a couple of pretty dismal periods against Guelph last week. Lakehead's a good hockey team and they gave us everything they had."
 
"We're still in first now and hopefully we can maintain it," he added.
 
The first ten minutes of the first period ticked by without many whistles, as the team traded opportunities but never truly got close to scoring. The Mustangs held the definitive edge in zone time, cycling around the perimeter in the offensive end but falling victim to some nice blocking from Lakehead.
 
That defensive effort paid off later in the period, when a pair of Mustangs' infractions gave the Thunderwolves a chance to draw first blood. Lakehead wasted no time taking advantage, cashing in on the first penalty to David Corrente with a goal from Jake Carrick. The man advantage tally was a rarity for a Lakehead team that entered the game ranked second-last in the league in road power play percentage at just 13%.
 
The Mustangs wouldn't make the same mistake twice, however, shutting down the Thunderwolves' the second time around to kill off an interference call on Stephen Gaskin. When Western got an opportunity of their own with under three minutes left in the frame, the OUA's first-ranked power play made no mistake, getting on the board with a slap-shot from David Corrente.
 
It wouldn't take long for the Mustangs to get back on the board in the second, taking their first lead of the game just over a minute in with a goal from Steve Reese. They almost allowed Lakehead to get back in the game 20 seconds later though, when an interference penalty assessed to Alex Micallef put Western down for the third time in the contest.
 
But perhaps the best chance of that power play came off the stick of a Western player, not a Lakehead player. Matt Clarke tore up the ice on a shorthanded 2-on-1 and kept the puck, just barely missing on a shot to the short side. Goal or no goal, the penalty kill appeared to give the Mustangs energy, and after David Quesnele was assessed a penalty for closing his hand on the puck Western doubled their lead with a power play goal from Zach Harnden.
 
Refusing to be left out of the fun, Unice chimed into his team's strong second period effort with a huge pad save at the midpoint of the period, stretching out his leg to rob the Lakhead forward in tight on a 1-on-1. Despite his best efforts though, the Thunderwolves would get on the board in the period, cutting the Mustangs lead to one with a goal from Mike Hammond at 6:56.
 
Hammond picked up the puck in the slot and made a nice move to get Unice down, showing patience as he out-waited the Mustangs starter and slid the puck in on the far side. The tally, his ninth of the year, wasn't his only goal of the period either; just over four minutes later Hammond added his second of the game off a rebound, tying the game at three going into the second intermission.
 
Although the Mustangs only gave up one power play goal through the first 40 minutes, there's no doubt that they spent more time short handed than they would have liked with no less than 12 minutes spent down a man. In the second period, the three Western infractions contributed to Lakehead's game-high 17 shots in the frame.
 
Western had another strong start to the period in the third, highlighted by a goal from McKee 2:01 in to put the Mustangs back on top 4-3. McKee finished off a spectacular passing play from Daniel Erlich and Micallef with a tip-in for his third of the year, getting the 345 fans in attendance back to being loud after a rough end to the second had them quiet.
 
Erlich finished with three points on the night, giving him a CIS-leading 46 points on the year. But when asked about what it means to have the sophomore star leading the country in points, Singer was quick to point out that hockey is a team game.
 
"No consequence here, we're not concerned about that," Singer responded. "The only points we're worried about are the team ones and we've got a lot of great individual players on this team—Daniel's one of them—and they all help us with those team points."
 
Pressed further, Singer wasn't prepared to soften his stance.
 
"Like I say it's more about a team thing I think generally and he's obviously been a big part of what we do," Singer reiterated. "[We had] a couple more power play goals tonight—he's leading that for us—and he's playing great—he's obviously playing great—we've just got to keep grinding away."
 
With both teams playing hard in the second half of the final frame things got rough, culminating in a series of penalties being handed out 17:13 in. In the aftermath of a delayed penalty to Harnden for hooking, De Coste received a five minute major for charging while Lakehead's Carson Dubchak earned himself two minors and a 10-minute misconduct for going after De Coste after the whistle.
 
"It's funny I didn't see the Harnden penalty behind the net so I turned to [assistant coach] David Kontzie to ask what happened and then apparently the situation happened with Kyle [De Coste]," Singer said after the game. "I've got to go check that out and see what the situation is."
 
The teams played 4-on-4 until Dubchak's minor expired and the Thunderwolves found themselves back at full strength. But despite having the extra man and controlling the puck in Western's zone Lakehead was unable to capitalize, and the Mustangs squeezed out the win for their eighth straight game earning a point.
 
Next up, the Mustangs will turn their attention to Saturday night's matchup against York. That game kicks off at 7:00 p.m. at Thompson Arena and sees Western take on a Lions team that was shutout 3-0 against Toronto on Friday night.
 
 
Notes
 
With Ryerson off for the night, Daniel Erlich had a chance to create some space between him and Ryerson's offensive stars—Domenic Alberga and Jamie Wise—in the CIS and OUA's goal-scoring race. He took full advantage of the opportunity, registering three assists in the game to bring his CIS-leading point total to 46 on the season.
 
For a whole period, it almost seemed as if Lakehead might keep the Mustangs' red-hot trio of Steven Reese, Zach Harnden, and Kyle De Coste off the board on Friday. But that wasn't to be the case, as the three Mustangs teamed up 1:05 into the second frame to put Western ahead and extend their point streaks to eight, 10, and six games, respectively.
 
While De Coste did keep his point-streak going, he did have his goal-scoring streak come to an end at five games. During those five games he had eight goals to go with four assists for 12 points. During his current six game point streak he has compiled 13 points. "Kyle's been playing great, he's been one of our best forwards the last 10 games, really since the second half," Singer said after the game. "He's been shooting the puck well—playing great—and we're really happy with where he is so hopefully he can keep it up."
 
Hammonds' three point night on Friday (2G—1A) gives him two goals and four assists for six points in his last three games. He chipped in with a two-assist effort in Lakehead's last game, an almost identical 4-3 loss to Ottawa on Saturday, February 1.