LONDON, Ont. – After trailing for the majority of the first period, a trio of goals in the final minutes of the frame put the Brock Badgers in front for good as they defeated the Western Mustangs by a 5-3 score on Saturday night at Thompson Arena.
 
"I thought we had a pretty good effort, we just had that five or six minute span where we stopped playing, got down on ourselves a little bit and they got three goals. That was the difference," said Mustangs head coach Clarke Singer. "I thought we played a great third, outshot them by 10 or 12 in the third, but it was too little too late."
 
Western now holds a 6-12-2 record and remain in ninth in the OUA West Division standings, while the Badgers improve to 11-9-1, good for fifth place.
 
Brock's offensive flurry began with a little more than four minutes remaining in the first on a goal from Sammy Banga, which was followed up with a goal at 17:16 by Skylar Pacheco and at 18:05 by Andrew Radjenovic. Radjenovic netted another goal in the second, while Matt McLeod provided the Badgers other goal on the night.
 
Ray Huether was involved in all three of Western's goals, scoring one and adding an assist on two others. Spenser Cobbold and Andrew Goldberg also found the back of the net for the purple and white, scoring their third and fourth goals of the season respectively.
 
Four different goalies saw ice time on Saturday, with both starters leaving the game in the second period. Clint Windsor got the start for Brock, making 19 saves before being forced to leave due to injury, with Alex Brooks-Potts stepping in to make 16 stops. Luke Perssini made 14 saves for the Mustangs before giving way to Greg Dodds, who turned aside 22 of the 23 shots he faced.
 
The Mustangs started the game off with a bang, with Huether putting the home team on the board just 15 seconds into the contest. That would be the only marker of the period until the final five minutes when Banga, Pacheco, and Radjenovic all tallied goals for Brock to give the Badgers a 3-1 lead after 20 minutes.
 
In the second period it was the Badgers who got the scoring going early, with McLeod notching a goal only 2:27 into the frame to make it 4-1. Radjenovic scored his second about eight minutes later to extend the Badgers lead midway through the period.
 
Cobbold answered back for the Mustangs with a little under three minutes remaining, picking up a loose puck in front before finding the back of the net to cut the Badgers lead to 5-2 heading into the third.
 
The Mustangs continued to battle in the final frame, outshooting their opponents 14-6, with Goldberg scoring his second goal in as many games at the 7:47 mark. The Toronto native scored from the slot, converting assists from Huether and Polesello. Unfortunately for the Mustangs that would be the final goal of the contest, with Brock taking the 5-3 win.
 
Next up for Western is a one-game week, with the team heading on the road to face the Toronto Varsity Blues on Saturday, January 21, where they'll be looking to avenge a 7-3 loss to Toronto from back in November. Fans can tune in to all of the action from Toronto live on OUA.tv and CHRW Radio 94.9 FM.