LONDON, Ont. – The Toronto Varsity Blues scored three goals in the opening nine minutes of the contest to take a lead that they would never relinquish en route to a 7-3 win over the Western Mustangs on Friday night at Thompson Arena.
 
The game constituted Toronto's first victory of the season, and moved Western back to 4-7-2, while extending the Mustangs losing streak to seven games.
 
"We just have to be better. We have to be better in a whole lot of areas," said Mustangs head coach Clarke Singer "I think we're not meeting the expectations of the program from the top right on down and that includes us so we have to do a heck of a lot better job."
 
Six different Varsity Blues players recorded goals on Friday night, with Western's offence coming courtesy of Luke Karaim, Andrew Goldberg, and Connor Chartier.
 
Andrew Hunt got the win in net for Toronto, making 31 saves, while Luke Peresinni got the start for Western before giving way to Justin Tugwell midway through the first period.
 
The Blues opened the scoring just over two minutes into the game as Willy Paul breezed into the offensive zone before feeding a wide-open Russell Turner at the faceoff dot for the goal. Just four minutes later, Charlie Connell slid a pass across the crease to Aiden Wallace who made no mistake putting the puck in the empty net.
 
Toronto continued their fast start when Connor Bebb fed the puck to Matt Campagna, who beat Peresinni with a deke to his backhand before finishing the play.
 
The Mustangs began to climb back into the game with two goals in three minutes in the second period. First, Goldberg wired one past Hunt. Then, Karaim cheekily deflected the puck off Hunt's pad and into the net from behind the goal line.
 
However, Toronto answered just 40 seconds later when Max Lindsay picked up a rebound and made no mistake to give put the Varsity Blues up 4-2.
 
Toronto added two insurance markers in a 14-second span in the third period, when Lindsay picked up his second goal of the game before Casey Knight scored off the rush immediately after.
 
Each team would add another goal before the end of the game to settle things at 7-3.
 
After the game, Tugwell expressed hope that the Mustangs would turn things around soon.
 
"It doesn't get much lower than this. We're almost at rock bottom, so you know what? We're gonna take a couple days, rest up, and come back Monday ready to go again."
 
The Mustangs are back on the ice next Friday for a School Day Game at home against Laurentian. Puck drop is set for 11:00 a.m. at Thompson Arena.