It would hardly be an exaggeration to call the upcoming week one of the most important ones the Western Mustangs will have to go through this season.
Not just competition wise— though the prospect of having to face two of the top teams in the OUA West Division in CIS no. 7 Windsor and Waterloo is certainly a tantalizing one— but also because of timing; with just four games left in the regular season, this week represents one of Western's last chances to solidify favourable positioning at the top of the OUA.
Making this weekend even more important is the fact that Western dropped a game against the West Division's seventh placed team in York last week— a loss that leaves Western with a lot less wiggle room heading into the final stretch of the season. It also put the Warriors within reasonable striking distance of the Mustangs while giving the Lancers sole possession of first.
Still, even with a couple of injuries suffered in their win against Brock last Wednesday and their failure to get on the board against York on Friday, Western did see some promising signs last week. After a rough patch coming back from the winter break that saw him put up an uncharacteristically low .854 save percentage over four starts, starter
Greg Dodds had a bounce back performance against York, stopping 26 of 27 shots despite the loss.
Western's scoring depth was also on display in Wednesday's win, with
Noah Schwartz registering two goals and four points to extend his point streak to seven games while first-year players
Trent Ouellette,
Dylan Corson, and
Trevor Warnaar all got on the scoresheet. Usual suspects
Steve Reese and
Stefan Salituro also had multi-point nights.
The Mustangs are going to need that offence and solid goaltending if they are to beat both Windsor and Waterloo this week. For what it's worth—and it seems to have been worth quite a bit to them so far this year—the team should have a ton of support this weekend, as Western puts on their second annual Mustang Days celebration.
Thursday, January 29 vs Windsor — 7:00 p.m. — Watch Live on OUA.tv Western's loss to York last week could have been a lot more meaningful if Laurier hadn't done the Mustangs a favour on Saturday and beat Windsor 3-0. With the loss, the Lancers forfeited their game-in-hand over Western, although they still sit two points ahead in the OUA West.
This will be the second matchup between the two teams this season, as the Mustangs upset the Lancers on the road in early December by a score of 4-3. That win, which was the finale of an extremely tough six-game road trip for Western, might still stand as the purple and white's most impressive victory of the season so far, although a win this week would be an instant rival.
Windsor represents a formidable opponent, if not just because of the sheer talent on their roster. Besides the fact that they have the third best power play in the OUA and have scored the second most goals, they also boast players like Spencer Pommells, who leads the OUA in points by an 11-point margin (43), assists (29), and is tied for the lead in game winners (5).
His 43 points are also good enough for tops in the CIS, as are his 29 assists. He is joined on Windsor's roster by an impressive total of four other players with 20 or more points, a list that is made up of forwards Dylan Denomme (11g—15a), Drew Palmer (13g—11a), and Matt Beaudoin (12g—10a) along with junior blue liner Kenny Bradford (7g—18a).
In net, Parker Van Buskirk gets the majority of playing time for the Lancers, and his 1164 minutes so far this season rank him among the top five busiest goalies in the OUA. He's started Windsor's last six games, winning four of those, and has a .900 save percentage on the year.
Saturday, January 31 vs Waterloo — 4:00 p.m. — Watch Live on OUA.tv Waterloo may sit behind Western in the standings but they've already proven they can beat the Mustangs once this season, handing the purple and white a 4-3 defeat at CIF Arena on October 18. With their record at 4-1, the Warriors looked to be off to a fantastic start to the year, that is until they dropped their next six games and appeared to take a major blow in the standings.
More recently, however, Waterloo has been on fire, stringing together nine straight wins between November 14 and January 16 before having that streak snapped by Queen's. Not to be deterred, the Warriors returned to the ice the next week and hammered out two consecutive wins against Ryerson and Guelph to head into this week on a two game winning streak.
While it's useless to try and pinpoint one reason for their recent success, it's worth mentioning that Waterloo's goalies put up a .940 save percentage during their nine game winning streak, compared to a .888 team save percentage over their first 11 games. Starter Mike Morrison was largely responsible for that success, playing in seven of the nine games during the streak.
Morrison has also been in net for the Warriors last two wins, an unsurprising fact considering that he's started all but four games so far this season. He's been backed up by solid offensive seasons from a number of his teammates, including four 20-point-plus players in Chris Chappell (10g—20a), Colin Behenna (13g—13a), Justin Larson (8g—14a) and Matt Kennedy (9g—12a).
