After losing to the Gryphons last Thursday in Guelph, the Mustangs bounced back on Friday to close out the regular season with a victory over the playoff-hopeful Laurier Golden Hawks and secure second place in the OUA West Division. This week, they'll play the team that knocked the Golden Hawks out of playoff contention, as they take on the Lakehead Thunderwolves. 
 
Other than the Queen's Cup final, the OUA playoffs are made up of best-of-three series, and while normally the Mustangs would host the first game of the series since they are OUA West's number two seed, due to the travel distance between Thunder Bay and London the Thunderwolves will host game one on Wednesday night, while the Mustangs will host game two on Saturday afternoon. If necessary, game three will go Sunday night at Thompson Arena.
 
Western heads into the playoffs with solid goaltending and a potent offence, which the team was able to demonstrate in their 6-0 blowout over Laurier last Friday. Greg Dodds bounced back nicely from his woes in early January, keeping his save percentage above .900 in his last five appearances after having in fall below in four straight starts. His 14 wins on the season are good enough for second in the OUA behind Windsor's Parker Van Buskirk and his 18.
 
Supporting Dodds on offence is one of the most balanced attacks in the league, as even with injuries the Mustangs are still able to safely run all of their lines. Captain Steve Reese has led by example on offence all year, and closed out the season with a team-leading 23 assists and 32 points. Stefan Salituro (14—15—29), Noah Schwartz (7—14—21), Kyle De Coste (6—14—20) and Adam McKee (7—13—20) follow Reese on the team's scoring leaderboard.
 
Western and Lakehead have split their season series this year, with the Mustangs winning on November 28 before the Thunderwolves regrouped to win in double-overtime the next night. Due to the large distance between the two cities, both of those games took place in Thunder Bay, meaning that Western will be welcoming Lakehead to London for the first time on Saturday.
 
As a team, the overall standings aren't the only list that Western tops the Thunderwolves on; the Mustangs also have a stronger power play (27% vs 19.2%), penalty kill (88.5% vs 82.9%), and team save percentage (.920 vs .887). But while Lakehead has had trouble scoring with the man advantage, they do have a higher goals-per-game average than Western (4.04 vs 3.70). 
 
So this is a team that can put pucks in the net (their GPG average is third in the OUA). They also boast a number of talented individuals on their roster, including the league's second highest scorer in Mike Hammond. Hammond's 24 assists and 39 points are second to only Windsor's Spencer Pommels in the OUA and his point total is good enough to tie him for fifth in the CIS.
 
Along with him, the Thunderwolves have three other 20-plus point getters, as Keith Grondin (9—17—26), Kelin Ainsworth (12—10—22), and Dodds' former teammate with North Bay Carson Dubchak (10—10—20) have all passed the mark. Meanwhile, Lakehead also has four defence men with more than ten points, led by junior blue liner Jay Gilbert (5—11—16).
 
In net, Jeff Bosch and Justin McDonald have split the majority of starts for the Thunderwolves, with McDonald spending the most time between the pipes at 1098 minutes total. When a playoff spot was on the line against the Golden Hawks, Lakehead turned to McDonald and he got the job done, turning aside 26 of 28 shots earn the win and push his team into the post-season.

OUA West Quarterfinal Schedule

Game 1 - Western at Lakehead - Wednesday, February 11 at 7:30 p.m.
Game 2 - Lakehead at Western - Saturday, February 14 at 4:00 p.m. - Watch Live on OUA.tv, Listen Live on CHRW Radio
Game 3 (If Necessary) - Lakehead at Western - Sunday, February 15 at 7:00 p.m. - Watch Live on OUA.tv, Listen Live on CHRW Radio