LONDON, Ont. - The Western Mustangs were unable to close out the weekend at home with consecutive wins, losing to the Waterloo Warriors 4-2 at the Thompson Arena on Sunday afternoon.
The loss is Western's first defeat on home ice this season, coming into the game 2-0 at home with wins against Guelph in the season opener and against Laurier yesterday.
Getting the start again today after earning a shutout in her OUA debut against Laurier the day prior, Mustangs goalkeeper Shelby Ryan was tested early as Western got into early penalty trouble. Warriors forward Rachel Marriott opened the scoring, beating Ryan on the power play with a high shot that made its way through a screen.
Lindsay Kirkham continued her great start to the year with her fourth goal of the season, earned by deflecting a shot from the point past Waterloo starter Taylor Reimer, to level the score midway through the period. The deadlock did not last long however, as the Warriors quickly replied with another power play goal.
For the second straight game, the Mustangs came out strong to begin the second period as their gameplan shifted to getting more pucks on net to challenge Reimer.
Rookie forward Alyssa Chiarello put away a rebound to tie the game early in the period. The goal was her fourth of the year, and she has now scored in three consecutive games.
The rest of the period became a defensive affair with neither team having much room to operate in the neutral or offensive zones.
"We got a lot of pucks to her but not in the right places," said Mustangs defenceman Brianna Iazzolino about her team's efforts to further challenge Reimer in the second period.
Waterloo broke the game open with two early goals in the third period, capitalizing on turnovers and putting away two of their first five shots of the period, including Marriott's second goal of the game on a partial breakaway.
"We were going pretty good in the third period, I think it was back and forth hockey," Mustangs assistant coach Blair Webster said about the flow of the game in the last period. "We made a bit of a defensive blunder clearing the puck. They scored and that took the wind out of our sails"
Marriott capped off her performance with an assist on her team's last goal, and Reimer kept the Mustangs scoreless in the period to help her team hold on to the lead and earn the victory.
The Mustangs will be back in action on Saturday, November 5, at 2 p.m. when they head on the road play the Ryerson Rams, a team on Western's tail in the standings, at the Mattamy Athletic Centre in Toronto.
