Since winning their opening game of the second half with a 4-0 victory over the Ryerson Rams, the Western Mustangs have struggled to convert their high shot totals into goals, leading to three consecutive losses heading into their first away games of 2017 against the Brock Badgers and the York Lions.

These two matchups will be pivotal for the purple and white as they jockey for playoff positioning in a very competitive conference. While they are currently ranked seventh in the OUA and have more points this season than both Brock and York, several teams could pass them in the standings since all but one team chasing them have at least two games in hand.

The pucks must find their way into the net for the Mustangs to see success down the stretch; they have scored five total goals after scoring four times in the opening period against Ryerson despite outshooting both Laurentian and Nipissing this past weekend, something that assistant coach Blair Webster remarked on after Sunday's game against the Lakers.

"Within this league, it's so competitive. We scored one goal [against Nipissing]. If the other team didn't score any we win the game 1-0, and you're not going to win many games 1-0 in this league. We've got to find a way to get more pucks to the net, get more pucks past the opposing goaltenders to come away with some victories."  

Although the purple and white offence has been a bit snake-bit recently, one area that could help the team bounce back is the power play. Western's recorded power play goals in four of the team's last five games, and lead the OUA with a 17.3 percent success rate.

Western at Brock –  Saturday, January 21 at 2:15 p.m. – Watch live on OUA.tv

The Mustangs offence faces a stern test to begin their slate of weekend matchups as the Badgers are a top five team in the OUA in keeping the puck out of the net. Led by regular starting goaltender Jensen Murphy, who boasts the fourth highest save percentage in the conference, the Badgers allow less than two goals against per game and only trail the Toronto Varsity Blues for highest penalty kill percentage.

Brock took the first matchup between these two teams when they scored 37 seconds into overtime to escape Thompson Arena with a 2-1 victory in a game that saw the Mustangs outshoot the Badgers 25-17. Western will once again have to watch out for Maggie Spratt-Mallick, who scored the tying goal in their last matchup and scored one of two goals for the Badgers in their most recent game against Toronto.

Western at York on Sunday, January 22 at 2 p.m. – Watch live on OUA.tv

The Mustangs defeated the York Lions by a score of 5-1 at the Thompson Arena earlier in the season on the strength of a three goal second period and a strong performance in net for Katie Jacobs, who stopped all but one of the 28 shots she faced.

Despite being in the lower half of the standings, York has been playing strong hockey as of late, taking two of their last three matchups with their only loss coming to Toronto by a one goal margin. They played especially well in their most recent matchup against UOIT, scoring six goals and shutting out the Ridgebacks in the third period where they faced 17 shots on goal. They were led in that game by freshman forward Christina Chin, who scored the first two goals of her OUA career.

While their offence ranks in the top three in shots on goal for the season and has been potent as of late, the Lions rank in the bottom three in the OUA in terms of goals allowed per game so there is an opportunity for the Mustangs to kick start their own offence.