LONDON, Ont. – Stephen Gaskin completed his first OUA hat trick with 10 seconds left in overtime to lift the Western Mustangs over the Concordia Stingers 6-5 at Thompson Arena Friday night.
 
It was quite the finish for the veteran defenceman, who scored his second of the night with 56 seconds left in the third to send the game to extra time. He doesn't consider himself to be offence-oriented, but when you're third on the team in scoring you're doing something right.
 
"I haven't had a hat trick I think since I was in novice or something like that," said Gaskin post-game. "My game's more defensive but things were just clicking tonight."
 
Everything might have ended well for Gaskin, but for a moment early in the second period it seemed like he might not finish the game. Hobbling and clearly hurt after blocking a shot, he finished the penalty kill and was back to score his first of the night later in the frame. But it was still a scary moment for a team that's had some injury problems to start the year.
 
"It feels fine, it was more of a stinger than anything else," Gaskin said. "You know it's going to happen, there were a ton of other guys that took some stingers tonight too so just got to play through that."
 
When asked about the play, head coach Clarke Singer was a little less nonchalant.
 
"We can not afford to lose anybody else with how things have gone the first couple of months here," said Singer. "When he blocks a slap shot like that in the wrong spot you think it could be long term but he actually finished the shift and ended up not missing any time. He's one of our most valuable guys so it's important to have him in the lineup."
 
On a night when the attention was focused on him, however, Gaskin was quick to deflect praise to a long-time teammate who was in on all three of his goals.
 
"I've got to give a lot of credit to Shaun Furlong, who got an assist on I think every single one of my goals there," Gaskin said. "So he did a great job finding me on all three actually so I just had to put the puck in the net and luckily it went in."
 
Furlong finished the night with three primary assists to give him six points on the season. He found Gaskin in pretty much the same spot—the high slot—for all three of the goals to join Gaskin and Matt Marantz as the only players to register multi-point efforts for the Mustangs.
 
Marantz's performance, which saw him assist on captain David Corrente's opener and Gaskin's game-tying goal, was particularly special, considering that his parents were in attendance all the way from Calgary. He helped put on an excellent show for them in what turned out to be one of Western's most exciting games of the year—something that didn't surprise Singer or Gaskin.
 
"They're much improved over the last couple of years," Singer said when asked whether Concordia is better than their record. "They've got some of the most skill in the OUA, they play hard, they've got a lot of structure, and you know we saw a lot of that tonight. We were fortunate to come out with the win."
 
"They're a great team," Gaskin added. "That first line's got some of the best skilled forwards in the league. We knew that coming in and you know they showed it to us tonight as well. It was a good test for us and it's good we came out on top.
 
Meanwhile, Frederic Roy, Olivier Hinse, and Philippe Hudon each had two points for the Stingers, with Roy scoring twice on the five-on-three, Hudon scoring a go-ahead goal in the third to go with a first-period assist, and Hinse assisting on both of Roy's goals.
 
Gaskin's performance on offence helped earn backstop Greg Dodds his fifth straight win on the season. Dodds performed much better than the goal total suggests, making a number of key saves and expertly deflecting the puck out of play to give his teammates time to rest on a number of occasions. He finished with 25 saves on 30 shots and now possesses a .913 save percentage.
 
"I'm sure any time a goalie lets in that many goals he's probably not overly happy with his goals against average but they came at us hard in the second and he had a great second period," said head coach Singer. "If it wasn't for him there they could have gone into the third with the lead. He held the door shut for us there and then gave us a chance to come back in the third."
 
Dodds' counterpart, Miguel Sullivan, finished with 35 saves on 41 shots. It wasn't an easy test for either goalie, and many of the goals that did go in were well-executed and left the backstop with no chance.
 
Rookie Mark MacAuley scored his first of his OUA career to give Western a 2-0 lead just two minutes after Corrente opened the scoring in the first. MacAuley's tally came on a rush by defenceman Sean Callaghan, who capitalized on an offensive-zone turnover from Concordia by taking the puck down the ice and creating a rebound off a one-handed shot. 
 
Alexandros Soumakis got the Stingers on the board exactly 20 seconds later, going left to right on a clean break to beat Dodds and slide the puck in. But 40 seconds later it would be Western to strike again, with Connor Chartier showing off some nice hands in tight for his first-ever OUA goal.
 
Chartier's goal gave Western a 3-1 lead, but two five-on-three's helped Roy score a pair of power play goals and send the game into the intermission all tied at threes. Both of Roy's goals came on similar-looking slappers through a screen, frustrating a Western team that has been tops in the league on the penalty kill all year.
 
Gaskin had the only goal in the second period before adding one in the third and an encore in overtime. His performance helped earn an important two points in the standings, especially considering that Western heads into their toughest test of the year tomorrow, and on a tight turnaround to boot.
 
"In terms of looking ahead to tomorrow, I mean we play one of the best teams in the country and we try to go into the weekend looking at the quick turnaround," said Singer. "We played four lines most of the night, so my hope is we'll be okay tomorrow with our energy systems and our focus.
 
"Any time you get a chance to play Trois-Rivieres it's going to be a great hockey game. We had a great one last year and hopefully we're ready to go."
 
NOTES: MacAuley's goal was not just his first OUA goal but also his first OUA point. Chartier, on the other hand, already had three assists on the year before scoring his first OUA marker tonight… Marantz's two points help keep his early point streak going, as he now has points in all eight of Western's games so far this season…