LONDON, Ont. – With both teams coming in fresh off a month-long break, the RMC Paladins gave the Western Mustangs all they could handle on Friday night, scoring three second period goals to keep close in what finished as a 9-4 victory for the Mustangs at Thompson Arena.
 
The win served as an appropriate celebration for the birthday of Mustangs' captain Steve Reese, who turned 26 on Friday and chipped in two assists to commemorate the occasion. Reese was one of six Western players to turn in multi-point games on the night, as the Mustangs fired 47 shots and connected on 19 percent of those in a strong offensive showing.
 
But, at least defensively speaking, Mustangs' head coach Clarke Singer admitted after the game that his team wasn't exactly playing at their fullest potential.
 
"Defence is a lot about your mentality and I think obviously our mentality coming back here after Christmas and playing RMC wasn't where we needed it to be," said Singer. "I thought we were a little soft in a lot of areas, especially early on, but you know we haven't played in five weeks so we've got lots of things to tidy up besides that."
 
One of those things that Singer felt the team had to clean up might have come as a surprise to the casual observer on Friday. Despite the fact that his team cashed in on all three of their power play chances and added a shorthanded goal for good measure, Western's coach suggested that the man advantage could have been much better overall on the night. 
 
"I didn't think we were great on the power play… the first goal was nice— the bumpout to [Noah Schwartz] and the quick one timer— but I thought we were a little loose," he said. "The special teams is the thing that will take the longest to come back after the break because it's about details, and those escape when you're not thinking about the game for five weeks."
 
Untidy defence and rusty power play aside, however, the Mustangs got a number of notable performances on the night, some of them coming from newer additions to the team.
 
Cody Brown and John Urbanic— both first year players seeing the first regular season action of their OUA career— each had points on Friday, with Urbanic grabbing an assist and Brown a goal and an assist. Brown's goal came with the help of another first-year player, as Jake Worrad split the Paladins' defence with a nice saucer pass to give Brown a breakaway— a chance he finished with a hard wrist-shot off the post and in.
 
"Outstanding," Singer replied when asked about the performance of Brown and Urbanic on the night. "Neither of those guys have been in the lineup since our [preseason] Alaska trip— they actually both got hurt the same game in very early October. But they both worked very hard, they've both got lots of skill and I thought they added a lot to our forward group tonight. Browny had a real nice goal and Urby had a couple of chances— I thought they did a fine job tonight."
 
Brown wasn't the only Mustang with a nice goal on Friday. Perhaps the prettiest tally of the night came off the stick of veteran defenceman Matt Paltridge, who beat his man to the outside, toed the goal line, and then—with very little space left—flipped a James Van Riemsdyk-esque shot into the small space between RMC goaltender Evan Deviller and the crossbar.
 
Deviller, who has battled injuries this season but still turned in a number of strong performances, was extremely busy on the night, and he didn't catch a break from either of Schwartz or Stefan Salituro. Schwartz opened the scoring on a short-handed hustle play in the first before being the recipient of a tic-tac-toe man advantage passing play (even if the 'tic' was a misfired shot from defenceman Jake Worrad), while Salituro had two goals and an assist.
 
With all that offence, it's easy to get away with thinking the Mustangs always had the game in the bag, especially when facing the only winless team in the CIS. But the Paladins put up quite the fight on Friday, responding to four straight Western goals in the first period with a quartet of their own to pull the score to 6-4 late in the second. If it weren't for Salituro scoring his second of the night with under three minutes left in the middle frame, Western might have been quite a bit more nervous heading into the third.
 
Greg Dodds got the start in net for Western and had a tough night, falling victim to bad bounces on a couple of RMC goals and having to stand through long periods without any action.  In the end, he faced just 17 shots— a tough stat for a goaltender who prefers more work. But he and the Mustangs don't have time to dwell on the game, as the Ravens come to town for an early afternoon matchup fresh off of a 5-2 victory over Guelph.
 
"It was nice coming back and getting the legs going a little bit and getting the win," Singer said after the game. "We've got one of the best teams in the country coming in shortly so we're going to have a short turnaround here and we need to be a lot better tomorrow."
 
That game will take place at 2 p.m. Saturday at Thompson Arena. Carleton and Western currently each hold down top spot in their respective divisions after their victories Friday. Fans can watch all of the action live on OUA.tv
 
Notes
 
First-year players Colten Mayor and Trent Ouellette also had points, with Mayor scoring a goal and Ouellette adding an assist. In fact, all five first-year players playing contributed a point on the night— seven points total… As it stands, 16 of 18 Mustang skaters contributed points on Friday night. Look left, look right— all those people got points… Western defenceman Jed Rusk is a big man and he made his presence felt early on on Friday, laying out an RMC player with a big mid-ice hit at the opposing blue line to earn a loud cheer from the Mustangs' crowd… Singer had nothing but praise for his team's performance on their six-game road-trip heading into the break, saying "that showed a lot of character— those were six tough games… and we were shorthanded, one of the first times in my career that I don't think we dressed a full lineup, and the guys just showed tremendous heart and character and we got great goaltending."