LONDON, Ont. – Goals from six different players led the Western Mustangs to a 6-4 win over the Guelph Gryphons on Friday night at Thompson Arena.
 
The offence was firing on all cylinders on Friday as the Mustangs scored 5 goals before the third period commenced. Eleven different players recorded points, led by two each from Andrew Goldberg, Robert Polesello, Mike DiPaolo and Matt Marantz.
 
"I thought we had periods of the game where we played great... we've only been averaging less than two and a half goals per game so it's nice to kinda break out a little bit," said Mustangs head coach Clarke Singer.
 
The first period was a tale of two halves. Western dominated the first 10 minutes of the period as they pushed out to a 3-0 lead, but Guelph would answer with two goals of their own to cut the lead to one by the end of the frame.
 
Connor Chartier opened the scoring less than three minutes into the game on the powerplay. Just over a minute later, Jed Rusk potted his first goal of the season off a pretty feed into the slot from Polesello.
 
Polesello would add another assist on Spenser Cobbold's goal shortly after, as the Mustangs held sustained pressure in the Gryphons' zone before Cobbold capitalized on a rebound.
 
However, the Gryphons were undeterred by the Mustangs fast start and jumped right back into the game. First, Seth Swenson stole the puck at the Mustangs' goal line before out-waiting Gregg Dodds to sneak the puck past him to cut the lead to 3-1 at 7:47.
 
Then, with less than two minutes left in the period, the Mustangs were slow to get back on a 2-on-1 rush that Robert Lepine had no trouble finishing off after a pass from Cody Thompson.
 
Despite getting outshot 17-7 in the ensuing frame, Western would pad its lead with two more goals. The first came after Luke Karaim shot wide on a 2-on-0 break off a pass from Jonathan Laser. Laser quickly picked up the rebound and buried it to put the Mustangs up 4-2 just five minutes into the period.
 
Goldberg would stretch the lead out to 5-2 a little over four minutes later when he received the puck on a powerplay at the faceoff dot and picked the top corner glove side for his first marker of the season.
 
"These first five games was definitely a struggle for some reason and tonight we switched the lines up and I played with Trent [Ouellette] and [Scott] Teskey and we were able to pop a couple and that's always fun to see," said Goldberg.
 
After being held scoreless in the second, Guelph began to convert on their shots in the third period when Trevor Morbeck and Michael Stevens each scored three minutes apart.
 
But it would prove to be too little, too late for the Gryphons as Trevor Warnaar picked off a pass and faked a slap shot before wristing one past Stajcer in that three-minute gap to provide some insurance for the Mustangs.
 
Western travels to Toronto to play against York tomorrow night. Puck drop is set for 7:00 p.m. and fans can watch the action live on OUA.tv