WATERLOO, Ont. – The Western Mustangs wrapped up the 2016 portion of their schedule on Thursday night, falling to the Waterloo Warriors by a 4-2 score at the CIF Arena.
 
Western moves to 6-9-2 with the loss, keeping them in eighth place in the OUA West Division. Waterloo's record improves 5-7-3 and pulls them to within one point of the Mustangs with two games in hand.
 
For the second straight game, the Mustangs started slow in allowing three first period goals. Unlike yesterday's game against Laurier, Western wasn't able to overcome the early deficit.
 
Both goalies turned in solid performances on Wednesday, with Western netminder Greg Dodds making 30 saves including some big stops in the third period, while Mike Morrison answered with 33 saves for Waterloo.
 
Just five minutes into the game, Waterloo opened the scoring when a feed from Mitchell Smith left Michael Morgan with an open cage, and Morgan tapped the puck home.
 
Waterloo would extend their lead in a 30 second span with under two minutes remaining in the period. Mitch Elliot was the beneficiary of another slick assist, this time off the stick of Nick Halagian, before Michael Siddall scored through traffic on the powerplay to take a 3-0 lead into the intermission.
 
The Mustangs responded midway through the second period thanks to a marker from Cole Benson, with Mitchell Fitzmorris picking up the assist.
 
Western closed to within one goal when Rob Polesello scored with four minutes left in the game, but they could not repeat yesterday's magic and Halagian scored an empty net goal in the final minute to secure the 4-2 win for Waterloo.
 
The Mustangs will now have a few weeks away from competition before they return to regular season action on January 6 at home against the second place York Lions. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m., and will be streamed live on OUA.tv