Last week marked the first time all season that Western lost two games in a row, as the purple and white were bested by Queen's and UOIT on consecutive days.
 
It shouldn't come as a surprise that either team provided a tough test for the Mustangs. Not only are both teams among the best in a tough OUA East Division, but Western was forced to dress 17 skaters on Thursday and just 16 on Friday, including just four defencemen both nights.
 
Still, the results fit well in what turned out to be an odd week in the OUA.
 
The OUA West-leading and former CIS No. 10 York Lions were upset by the Waterloo Warriors on Friday before bouncing back the next night to hand a huge upset to the former CIS No. 1 McGill Redmen on Saturday. Meanwhile, the OUA-worst Lakehead Thunderwolves finally broke through and scored their first win of the year in Windsor, earning it against a top-three team in the West.
 
The result is that Western still holds down second place in the OUA West with 18 points, one point behind first place York and two points above Windsor with a game in hand on the Lancers. But they have dropped out of the CIS Top Ten, failing to earn a spot for the first time since week one. They'll look to get back on track this week when they hit the road for games against RMC and Carleton.
 
Friday's game brought to an end Western's six-game homestand, which saw them play some of the top teams in the league and come away with a 3-3 record. The Mustangs allowed five power play goals through the first four of those games before shutting out Queen's and UOIT last week to move to the top of the OUA's penalty killing leaderboard with a success rate of 87.8%.
 
Meanwhile, the Mustangs managed four goals on the power play and own the seventh-best unit in the OUA at 22.9%. But most of their scoring has come at five-on-five; the purple and white scored 16 goals at even strength over the last six games. Not every team can beat the OUA's best goalie three times without any help from their power play, but Western did just that to Queen's Kevin Bailie.
 
Matt Marantz continues to lead the team in scoring with 19 points and the league in assists with 15. He was shutout against Queen's before putting up two helpers against UOIT. Rookie Ray Huether had two points against Queen's and is second on the team with 13 points in 13 games.
 
Despite being part of a four-man defensive core for two consecutive nights, veteran Alex Micallef was able to hit an OUA career milestone last week, registering an assist against Queen's and a goal against UOIT to give him a career-best 12 points on the year. His former high was 11 points.
 
Micallef's goal against UOIT came at the end of a busy second period and tied a game that the Mustangs had no business being in. Peter Delmas had his best performance as a Mustang in the game, highlighted by a second period that saw him stop over 20 shots before Western could get a single puck on net. He finished with 50 saves on 53 shots in a tough-luck loss.
 
Friday, November 27 – 7 p.m. – Western at RMC
 
RMC has won just a single game through 15 opportunities this season and sits last in the OUA's East Division with a record of 1-11-3.
 
The Paladins are near the bottom of the league in goals-per-game (2.47) and have the worst goals against average (5.88) and penalty kill (66.7%), but have performed admirably on the power play (17.2%), ranking eighth with 10 goals. Their offence has performed much better at home, scoring seven more goals in one less game and putting together a 21.7% power play success rate.
 
Their goaltenders have been at the other end of a number of barrages, facing more than 50 shots three times, and rank first in the OUA in saves with 567. To put that number in perspective, the next highest total for shots against in the OUA goes to Brock at 486, and then to Concordia at 418.
 
Leading the Paladins on offence is Bruce Hornbrook, who has seven goals and eight assists for 15 points through 15 games. The sophomore forward recorded the fist hat trick of his career in a 6-5 loss to Brock on November 7 and has six points in his last five appearances.
 
Saturday, November 28 – 7 p.m. – Western at Carleton – Watch Live on OUA.tv
 
Carleton has been one of the league's top teams year in and year out recently and this year is no different.
 
The CIS No. 9 Ravens have 18 points through a league-low 12 games, good enough to rank them fourth in the tough OUA East, and are currently on a five game win streak that has seen them beat two of the OUA's top teams in York (8-2-3) and UQTR (11-2-1).
 
With a team save percentage of .912 and the second-best goals-per-game average in the OUA at 4.67, Carleton can get it done on either end of the rink. Thanks in large part to solid goaltending from Francois Dupuis, the Ravens rank second on the penalty kill (86.7%) behind just Western and third in the OUA in goals against average at 2.47. Dupuis has a .929 save percentage.
 
Carleton is led in scoring by Brett Welychka, whose 20 points through 12 games is good enough for fourth in the OUA and point-per-game average of 1.66 is good enough for second among players who have played over 10 games. Also scoring at a point-per-game average or higher for the Ravens are Michael McNamee, Brent Norris, Ryan Van Stralen, Jeremie Fraser, and Corey Durocher.