LONDON, Ont. - The Toronto Varsity Blues rolled into town on Friday night and showed the league-leading Mustangs that they were a force to be reckoned with as they walked away with a 2-1 shootout win over the purple and white.
 
"I thought we played very well. I think the 1-1 at the end of the third period was a fair result and I think the chances were even," said Mustangs head coach Chris Higgins. "We played good D-zone coverage, it was more the turnovers at the far end that got us into some trouble."
 
Despite the loss, the Mustangs still maintain their spot atop the OUA standings with a 15-1-3 record, while the Varsity Blues now hold a 14-3-3 record, good for third place in the league.
 
The Varsity Blues came out strong into the first period and held the Mustang's blue line firm in their attempts to put points on the board. Despite outshooting the purple and white ten-to-seven, the Blues were unable to find an opening in the net of Western's Kelly Campbell.
 
The second frame mirrored the first as both teams remained scoreless despite heavy blue and white offensive pressure in the Mustangs end of the ice.
 
When the Mustangs and the Blues came back onto the ice after the second intermission, both teams were determined to take control of the game. Despite both sides getting off equal numbers of shots on net it was the Blues that got to the scoreboard first as Jacqueline Scheffel found the back of Campbell's net at 13:55.
 
Despite the blue and white advantage the Mustangs fought hard to recover, and the purple and white did just that when they pulled Campbell from the net with a minute left in the play to challenge the Blues six-on-five. With the one player advantage Western's Kendra Broad picked up and put it past Blues' goaltender Nicole Kesteris to tie the score up 1-1 with only thirty second left in the match.
 
Broad's goal sent the match into a five minute penalty period, but more than that, it provided the Mustangs with at least one point coming out of this contest – win or lose.
 
With a scoreless overtime period the game was sent into shootout rounds where the fate of the game was sealed when the Blues netted goals on both of their shots from Taylor Day and Kristi Risely, while Western shooters Katelyn Gosling and Ally Galloway failed to get the puck past Kesteris. With the 2-0 shootout result, the Blues walked away with the 2-1 victory.
 
"I give [Toronto] some credit on the shootouts, those were two very nice shootout goals," said Higgins adding that, "When you're losing 1-0 with less than a minute to go and walk out with a point you've got to be pretty happy."
 
The Mustangs will be back in action on Saturday, January 31 as they gear up to face the Ryerson Rams on home ice at Thompson Arena at 7 p.m.