LONDON, Ont. – Four goals from Colin Behenna powered the Waterloo Warriors to a 5-2 win over the Western Mustangs on Saturday afternoon at Thompson Arena in the regular season finale for both teams.
 
"Waterloo's a great team, and we just weren't ready to play," said Western head coach Clarke Singer about the Mustangs slow start on Saturday. "I thought we'd have a lot of emotion on Senior Night, usually we do, and we talked about a lot of emotional things before the game, but it just didn't translate and that's on me – maybe we talked a little bit too much about those things and didn't focus enough on the game and the game plan.
 
"All the credit to Waterloo, they're a great hockey team, they've been playing great in the second half, and they're going to be a force to be reckoned with in the playoffs."
 
The loss sees the Mustangs finish the regular season in second place in the OUA West Division with 36 points and an 18-9-0 record. Waterloo finishes the year in third with 33 points and a 16-11-1 mark.
 
Behenna got the Warriors off to a fast start and continued his strong play throughout the game, finishing with four goals and one assist for his highest scoring game of the season. He wasn't the only Waterloo player with a hot hand on Saturday, as linemate Brett Mackie had a four-point game of his own, with one goal and three assists, while both Joe Underwood and Eric Moffat each had a pair of helpers.
 
Sean Callaghan and Stephen Sanza provided the offence for the Mustangs, each scoring their third goal of the season.
 
Saturday's game featured Western's annual Senior Day celebration that honours the team's graduating players. Seven members of the purple and white roster were honoured prior to puck drop, including Sanza, Noah Schwartz, Alex Micallef, Matt Herskovitz, Shaun Furlong, assistant captain Stephen Gaskin, and captain David Corrente.
 
 "It was emotional," said Corrente. "A lot of mixed feelings out there, but I've had such an amazing time in my four years here and I wouldn't want to do it any other way. I had a great time out there, I know the result wasn't what we wanted, but I'm ready to go into the playoffs, I'm ready to lead this team as far as we can go. I want to win in my last year here. Again, I'm having a lot of fun and hope to continue that."
 
After both teams started the game with a quick pace, an early Mustangs penalty gave the Warriors the man advantage and they'd make the most of it, as Behenna jammed the puck home from the side of the Western net to take a 1-0 lead. The scoreboard wouldn't stay that way for long however, as Behenna found the back of the net once again less than a minute later to put Waterloo up 2-0 before the game's three minute mark.
 
Callaghan struck back for the Mustangs just over four minutes later, firing a shot from the point that beat Waterloo netminder Mike Morrison to cut the Warriors lead to 2-1.
 
Waterloo would quickly regain their two-goal lead with Behenna continuing his attack on the scoresheet. The fourth-year forward chipped the puck off the boards to break out of his own zone before streaking in alone on Delmas and beating him on the blocker side to make it 3-1 for the Warriors.
 
Waterloo's top line continued to plague the Mustangs, with Mackie converting passes from Behenna and Underwood at 15:36 to give the Warriors a 4-1 lead and bring Greg Dodds on in relief in the Mustangs net.
 
After a five-goal opening period neither team was able to solve the other in the middle stanza, with Western holding a slight edge, outshooting the Warriors 12-9.
 
The third frame initially played out similarly to the second before Behenna netted his second power play goal of the day at the 10:40 mark off of a feed from Moffatt.
 
The Mustangs upped their pressure towards the end of the contest, which resulted in Sanza converting a fantastic backhand pass from Schwartz into a top corner goal to cut the Waterloo lead to 5-2 with a little less than six minutes remaining.
 
Unfortunately for the Mustangs faithful in attendance, that would be the final goal of the day and Waterloo skated off with the win.
 
The Mustangs will now await the results of the rest of tonight's remaining OUA regular season games to find out their playoff opponent for next week. Depending on how tonight's matchups playout Western will take on either Laurier or Ryerson in the first round.
 
"I think we're in good shape right now. That's not how we wanted to go into it of course, but we've been playing very well, very strong," said Corrente on heading into the playoffs. "The guys have bought into our system here that Clarke and the coaches have imposed on us, and we're excited."
 
Regardless of their opponent, Western's first round playoff series will begin on Wednesday, February 17, at 7 p.m. at Thompson Arena.
 
NOTES: Winger Matt Marantz finishes the season on top of the Mustangs scoring leaderboard with five goals and 21 assists for 26 points in 24 games played, while Spenser Cobbold finished first among Western rookies with 23 points… Two players tied for the Western lead in goals with Furlong and rookie Andrew Goldberg each potting nine this season…