LONDON, Ont. — Marc Nother stopped 22 shots for the first shutout of his OUA career and Western ended their power play struggles in a big way, scoring four goals on six man advantage chances to power by the Laurier Golden Hawks 6-0 at Thompson Arena Friday night.
 
The game also served as an opportunity to celebrate Western's nine departing players, and those players made sure to give their teammates a big thank you. In total, they accounted for 12 points on the night, highlighted by Adam McKee's four points and Stefan Salituro's three, to help give Nother his fifth win in his last five appearances. Post-game, Mustangs head coach Clarke Singer couldn't say enough good things about his graduating players.
 
"I said to them before the game [that] it's probably one of the best groups of young men graduating that I've had in my 15 or 16 years here," he said. "That counts between the board and off the ice as well, so we really wanted to have a great game for them but they had a great game for each other too by the points scored."
 
McKee was everywhere on Friday night, winning face-offs left and right to go with his goal and three assists. A five-year veteran for Western who has been through his fair share of playoffs, the London native didn't take much time to answer when asked what he thinks it's going to take for the Mustangs to win in the post-season this year.
 
"Honestly games like that," he responded. "After Thursday we weren't happy with the way we played going down to Guelph and we really made a point tonight on seniors night to make sure that we went into the playoffs with the right mind-set and the right momentum. We played a full sixty, which is what we really need to do."
 
Considering the Mustangs entered the game with three losses in their last four games, the game seemed like exactly what the team needed heading into the playoffs. But after the game Singer made sure to point out that he wasn't exactly disappointed with the team's recent play.
 
"I think the one thing that people forget is how good this league is," Singer said. "You can play good and lose [and] you have to play your best to win. I think tonight that was our best game probably in the second half and hopefully the right time to have it. We've battled some injuries, we've had different line combinations, but the guys played hard tonight."
 
Western dominated the opening period, firing a game-high 20 shots on Laurier starter Vinny Merante and getting a goal from McKee. Even with all of their zone time, the marker actually ended up coming thanks to a Golden Hawks gaffe, as their defence coughed up the puck behind the net to allow Steve Reese and Kyle De Coste to feed McKee in front.
 
Not long after, the Mustangs would get a chance to widen their lead, only to have Merante stretch out the pad and rob Saltiruo on a clear break. A great saucer pass from Reese got that play started, as he chipped the puck up and behind Laurier's defence to find his line mate. Ryan Kirk would get another excellent chance with seven minutes left, blowing around his man on the outside, but wasn't able to find the back of the net.
 
Those saves were just two of a number of good ones for Merante in the game, which is to say that he probably deserved a better fate than he ended up getting. But the second period wouldn't be kind to him, and after the Mustangs netted two goals within the first five minutes he would be pulled from the net in favour of Colin Furlong.
 
Salituro got the scoring started in the second frame, chasing down an offensive-zone face-off win by McKee and chipping the puck past Merante. De Coste would add to that effort up with a five-on-three goal of his own three minutes later, following up a close chance from David Corrente with a laser off the cross bar and in.
 
That goal chased Merante, but Furlong wouldn't have much more luck; it took just over a minute for Matt Marantz to welcome him to the game with Western's fourth tally of the night. On the other end of the ice, Nother faced just nine shots in the period after facing just three in the first. Despite the low shot totals he was still forced to make a number of great saves, highlighted by a save late in the middle frame that saw him sprawl to rob Laurier's Kyle Morrison in tight. 
 
The rough play picked up near the end of the period too, as the Golden Hawks began to show their frustration. Laurier took the first four penalties of the game before Western closed out the second frame with a pair, though most of the rough action came in the form of clean hits. For Western, Worrad and Paltridge each got in on the action, while Laurier's Matt Provost got the better of Matt Herskovitz on a mid-ice hit with five minutes left.
 
Corrente added Western's fifth of the night in the third period, capitalizing on a great face-off win by McKee and blasting the one-timer through Furlong with just two seconds left on the Laurier penalty. That goal was Western's fourth and final man advantage goal on the night, and post-game McKee spoke about the revived power play.
 
"Before this we were kind of in a little bit of a lull— last night I thought we moved it well, we didn't get a lot of bounces last night but tonight we put some pucks in the net," Mckee said. "I mean it's not always about moving it around it's about little bounces. Last night we moved it as well as we did tonight but you know the bounces went our way tonight and we really need our power play going into the playoffs because goals are really hard to come by."
 
Trevor Warnaar would score the sixth of the game with just over five minutes left, diving to sweep in the puck on a scramble play in front of the Golden Hawks' net. Despite a couple of penalties with time winding down, the score would ultimately stay the same as Western walked away with the big victory. 
 
Next up are the playoffs for the Mustangs, and although they won't know their opponent until this weekend's games are over they know they're going to be playing a desperate team. As Singer is always quick to note, the OUA is a league with a lot of parity, so look for the Mustangs to be playing some exciting games when action kicks off next week.
 
NOTES
[Usual] defenceman Alex Micallef, one of Western's departing seniors, had two assists on the night as the team tried him out at forward. Post-game, Singer spoke about the decision: "Just looking with our injury situation and our depth," Singer said. "Just looking to put the best lineup together for the playoffs. [Micallef] is such a dynamic player— he's a great skater, he's got a great shot, he's offensive minded and we just wanted to get a look at him up there in case we maybe needed him in the playoffs." But don't expect that to be a regular occurrence, as Singer added that Micallef's defensive skills will probably be needed unless there are special circumstances dictate that they need to move him back up.