Last weekend, the Carleton Ravens did what no other team had been able to do this season: beat the Western Mustangs in Thompson Arena. So, with just eight games left on the season and the playoffs looming, the Mustangs will look to get back to their winning ways this weekend when they welcome York on Friday before travelling to Toronto for a game against the Varsity Blues on Saturday.

It's safe to say Western was a bit rusty in their return to OUA action over the weekend, allowing RMC to get back into the game on Friday despite jumping out to an early 4-0 lead and finding themselves unable to cash in on any of their six power play opportunities in Saturday's loss to Carleton. But they still got a big two points against the Paladins and currently hold down second in the OUA West behind Windsor.

In a bit of good fortune for Western, Windsor also suffered a loss last weekend, falling to Laurentian in their first game back from the break to give them two consecutive losses for the first time this season (the first loss came against Western before the break, on December 3). The Lancers would bounce back the next night though, handing the Voyageurs a 4-1 defeat to avoid the weekend a sweep.

So the Mustangs are still very much in the race for first in the OUA West Division. But Windsor's loss wasn't the only good thing to come out of last weekend; head coach Clarke Singer gave some of his rookies the opportunity to factor in and they seized it. Cody Brown and John Urbanic each got the call for their first action of the season on Friday and combined to contribute three points.

Brown, who joined the Mustangs from the Caledonia Corvairs of the GOJHL, had two of those points, netting a breakaway marker and adding an assist for good measure on Friday. The Wasaga Beach, Ontario, native had already shown that he could be an effective offensive player before arriving at Western in the Fall, registering 38 goals and 93 points in 41 regular season games with Caledonia last season before adding 24 more points in 14 playoff games to help the Corvairs win the championship.

His solid play on Friday and Saturday came in front of some of Western's biggest crowds for a home-stand so far this season, as the Mustangs held a Rock the Rink event on Saturday afternoon. Other standout performances came from Noah Schwartz, who scored two goals on Friday and added an assist on Saturday, and Stefan Salituro, who also had two tallies to go with an assist against RMC.

Western vs. York – January 16, 2015 at 7:00 p.m. – Watch live on OUA.tv

The Lions may sit seventh in the OUA West Division, five spots below Western, but they're no stranger to beating teams higher than them in the standings, especially recently. Entering last weekend, both UOIT and Queen's had more points than York, but neither could scrape a win out of their trip to Canlan Ice Sports (although, to be fair, the Gaels are currently mired in a tough-luck five game losing streak). 

Still, even before the break, York had proven that they're a team to be reckoned with this season, beating the likes of UQTR and Waterloo and taking Carleton to a shootout in mid-November. And they've done that all without a single player scoring at or above a point-per-game pace. The only team to score less goals than York (53) this season is RMC (47)—a team that's winless through 18 games.

Twenty-two of those goals have come from the Lions' top three offensive players in Michael Santini, Derek Sheppard, and Dylan Smoskowitz, who have combined for 42 of York's 133 points on the season. Santini is the Lions' leading scorer on the season with 15 points in 17 games, while Smoskowitz has the most goals (9) and Sheppard the most assists (9).

In net, York sits fifth in the OUA with a team save percentage of .915, one point below Western's total of .916. Chris Perugini has earned all eight of York's wins on the season and holds the seventh best save percentage in the OUA at .917, all while making the most stops in the OUA with 600. He's also helped the Lions' power play establish itself as a top-ten squad in the league with a success rate of 85.2.

Western vs. Toronto – January 17, 2015 at 7:30 p.m. – Watch live on OUA.tv

Like York, Toronto doesn't have a lot of players scoring at a point-per-game pace, in fact they only have one: their leading scorer in Jeff Brown, who has eight goals and ten assists for 18 points in 18 games. The Varsity Blues have scored five more goals than the Lions but have also allowed seven more in one less game, so it may not be surprising to hear they're one spot below York in the standings.

Toronto has had some trouble with their goaltending this year, as two of their three goaltenders—both of whom are seniors—have registered save percentages below .900. As a team, the Varsity Blues hold the fourth worst save percentage total in the OUA at .887, a letdown for a team that ranked fifth in the league last year with a team save percentage of .908. 

But they've still gotten some solid performances this year, with sophomore backstop Michael Nishi providing a fair share of those to establish himself as the team's number one. He currently leads the team's goaltenders with 702 minutes played and a save percentage of .908, his save percentage in home appearances sitting two points above at .910. 

In fact Toronto is better at most things at home, including goals-per-game (3.50 versus 2.88), power play percentage (27% versus just 7.9%), penalty kill percentage (82.2% versus 69.4%), and team save percentage (.896 versus .877). Their power play, which currently sits at 17.3% overall, has also gradually been getting better since October, when they registered a success rate of 10.8%.