LONDON, Ont. – Strong penalty killing and 33 saves from Greg Dodds helped the Western Mustangs defeat the Waterloo Warriors 3-1 on Friday night at Thompson Arena.
 
"I thought we had a great start, did a great job in the first period executing our game plan, and obviously we got that early [goal] which helped a lot," said Mustangs head coach Clarke Singer. "We did a great job killing penalties. Our penalty kill made a couple adjustments for Waterloo and I thought our guys did a fabulous job with that."
 
The win is the second consecutive victory for Western, and moves the team to 2-1 on the year, while Waterloo falls to 1-2.
 
The purple and white killed off six minor penalties throughout the game with relative ease, including two clutch kills just after Waterloo scored in the third period.
 
"Waterloo had one of the top powerplays in the league last year and we just wanted to try to get them out of the structure they like to run…our guys did a great job implementing that," said Singer regarding his team's penalty kill.
 
Dodds featured prominently in the first period, stopping all nine shots he faced, including a fantastic glove save on a 2-on-1 six minutes into the period. It wasn't all positive for the netminder however, as he was dinged for a high-sticking double minor, however the Mustangs were able to kill off the Warriors power play.
 
The Mustangs emerged from the period with a 1-0 lead thanks to a glove-side snipe by forward Luke Karaim on an odd man rush. Trent Oullette and Connor Chartier were credited with the assists.
 
Western would add to its lead in the second on a goal by Robert Polesello. After a strong play by defenceman Jed Rusk to prevent the puck from leaving the offensive zone, it made its way behind the net to Spenser Cobbold, who fed Polesello in front. Polesello made no mistakes putting it high and giving the Mustangs a 2-0 lead.
 
Waterloo cut that lead in half early in the third period thanks to a goal by Michael Siddall, however the Mustangs shut the door after that, with Ouellette adding an empty net goal with 20 seconds left to seal the victory.
 
Next up, the Mustangs take on Laurier in London on Friday, October 21, at Thompson Arena. Game time is set for 7 p.m., and fans can tune in live on OUA.tv