While the majority of the teams near the top of the OUA West Division began to slow down last week, the Mustangs kept on rolling, registering two big wins over Lakehead at Thompson Arena.
Western now stands alone atop the West Division with 18 points, one more than second-place York and four more than third-place Windsor. The Lancers have had a tough kick at the can for the last two weeks, losing all four of their games to drop to 6-4-2.
Shaun Furlong earned Western's Male Athlete of the week award with his performance against Lakehead, netting a natural hat trick on Thursday and adding another goal on Friday. His linemates
Andrew Goldberg and
Ray Huether also put together excellent week, registering six points and four points, respectively.
Western's defence continued to turn in solid offensive performances with nine points through two games. Veteran
Alex Micallef led the charge with a goal and three assists and now has a career high in goals with three. The defensive core that's been depleted all season got some help from their forward group on Friday, as
Dylan Corson shifted back to help.
Corson responded with an assist for his second point of the season. Leading scorer
Matt Marantz also had an assist on Friday one night after being shut off the score sheet for just the second time this season. His 12 assists have him ranked second in the OUA and his 17 points are good enough for seventh in the league.
The fact that Western was able to put up 12 goals through two games with only one point from their leading scorer is a testament to their offensive depth this season. Eight players are now scoring at a point-per-game pace while four players are just a point away from doing so.
For a team with two strong goaltenders, however, Western's been allowing too many goals against recently. After allowing four or more goals just once through their first five, the Mustangs have allowed five or more goals in four of their last six. The purple and white are now ranked 14th in the OUA with a save percentage of .894.
Thursday, November 19 - 7 p.m. - Queen's at Western - Watch live on OUA.tv One team that hasn't had a problem keeping their goals against average down is Queen's. The Gaels enter the week with an OUA-best .938 save percentage and 2.01 goals against average.
The tricolour have done an excellent job of staying out of the penalty box this season, and that can't be hurting their defensive stats. They've been assessed the least amount of penalties at just 27 and have allowed the least power play goals at four.
Junior backstop Kevin Baille has been solid for the Gaels all season, leading the league in both save percentage (.954) and goals against average (1.44) through seven starts. He's picked up five wins while his partner in crime Jacob Brennan is perfect through two starts. They've helped pick up a Queen's offence that has just two regular players scoring at a point-per-game pace.
Friday, November 20 - 7 p.m. - UOIT at Western - Watch live on OUA.tv It's not often that you can say a team's penalty kill is almost as dangerous as their power play, but UOIT certainly fits the mold. The Ridgebacks have scored a league-leading four times while shorthanded compared to five times on the power play for a 15.2% success rate.
All four of those shorthanded goals have come off the stick of different players--fitting for a team that's spread the offence around so far this year. Ben Blasko leads the team with eleven points through eleven games and two game-winning goals. Behind him, no other Ridgeback has double digits in points, although Loren Ulett and Connor Jarvis both have six goals.
Brendan O'Neill has picked up all seven of UOIT's wins while appearing in all eleven of their games. He has a solid save percentage of .909 despite shouldering the third-highest workload in the OUA at just over 639 minutes. His 318 saves are good enough for second in the OUA while his seven wins have him in a tie for third.
