LONDON, Ont. – On a night that saw ten seniors honoured with a pre-game ceremony for their cherished and lasting contribution to Mustangs hockey, Western was able to secure a 2-1 win over the visiting York Lions.
 
"It meant a lot," said fifth year defensemen Katelyn Gosling about the Senior Day celebration. "You look at the program here and everything that we have had the opportunity to be a part of and it was a special moment to reflect on that."
 
 "Its always nice to be recognized and I wouldn't have asked for a better group to be up there with," said fifth-year goaltender Kelly Campbell.
 
As fate would have it, it was three of those seniors who made the big plays in order to secure the victory for the Mustangs.
 
Gosling opened the scoring for the Mustangs with her fourth goal of the year while Kendra Broad scored the winning goal—her team leading ninth of the year. Campbell was outstanding in net, making 36 saves on the night and helping to kill off seven York power plays.
 
"Solid, and when you're are killing that many penalties your goalie has to be your best penalty killer," said Barrett of his all-Canadian goaltender. "When she sees the puck, she stops it."
 
The Mustangs have struggled to come out of the gate strong in recent games, but despite the pre-game ceremony, Barrett thought his team started the game well.
 
"We discussed [the distraction's] and it was a good test mentally," said Barrett "We passed with flying colours, especially the way we played in the first ten minutes."
 
Western capitalized on their early momentum, seizing the lead just less than three minutes into the game.
 
A hard collision between forward #Catherine O'Connor" and a York skater in the middle ice provided a loose puck in the neutral zone. Gosling, an outstanding skater, jumped up from the rear and filled the void by collecting it in stride and accelerating.
 
Gosling entered the Lion's zone on a one on two and took the puck to the left of her defender. With York goalie Megan Lee moving laterally to track her speed, she snapped a blistering shot far side that beat the goaltender above her glove hand.
 
 "I took it down and just tried to get the puck on net", said the all-Canadian defender after the game. "We lucked out."
 
Despite Western's early momentum, the Lions battled back in the second half of the period and sustained long periods of time on attack. For their part, York lived up to their reputation of funneling everything towards the net, firing 14 shots towards Campbell in the first period alone.
 
The shots after the first favoured the Lions 16 to six.
 
The second period saw the Mustangs run into penalty trouble. Western amassed six minor penalties in the middle frame.
 
"We had to kill a tremendous amount of penalty's in the second period," said Barrett. "When you have to kill that many penalties just through attrition you're going to give up some opportunities."
 
The Mustangs, however, couldn't kill off all six penalties in the period. Just over 14 minutes into the period, the Lions won a possession battle and sent the puck back to defensemen Kristen Barbara. Barbara fired a slap shot through the traffic that was amassed in the slot and beat Campbell to tie the game.
 
Four minutes later, however, the Mustangs would strike to take the lead once again.
 
After taking two consecutive penalties, Broad sprung from the box and joined her teammates on the rush. The puck eventually squeaked free and Broad, trailing the play, collected it in the left slot. Showing great patience, she outwaited Lee and snapped a shot that beat the York goaltender low blocker.
 
The physicality escalated in the third period. Defensemen from both teams were refusing to let forwards walk into the zone uncontested and it led to chances in going the other way in transition for both teams.
 
"In the third period we played a lot grittier, which we have been talking about a lot this year," said Barrett. "As we go into the playoffs [we need] more compete on the wall, keeping the puck down low in their zone, being tougher in front of both nets. We did a better job in the third period."
 
The Mustangs will return to action on Saturday as they travel to Windsor to take on the Lancers at 7:30 pm.