LONDON, Ont. – The Carleton Ravens took advantage of their power play opportunities on Friday night, scoring three times with the man advantage to defeat the Western Mustangs by a 4-3 score at Thompson Arena.
 
"It's a tough league. It was a very good game both ways, but I think the special teams were the difference," said Mustangs head coach Clarke Singer. "They got three power play goals and were opportunistic in those areas. I did think we had chances to pull ahead and tie it up, but we couldn't. It was a good game, I did think that we deserved a little bit better."
 
Anthony Stefano, Adam Sinclair, and Spenser Cobbold provided the offence for the Mustangs in the loss, with Brett Welychka, Alexandre Boivin, Adam Chapman, and Dalen Hedges scoring for the Ravens.
 
"It was nice, took two games, but it's always a good feeling. Would have been nicer to get the two points that's for sure," said Stefano on scoring his first career OUA goal.
 
Stefano didn't wait long on Friday night before tallying the first goal of his university career, sending the puck past Ravens netminder Francois Brassard in only the fifth minute of play to give the home side an early lead.
 
Carleton responded less than a minute later, with Welychka sending a slap shot into the back of the net for the Ravens first power play marker of the night, and eventually sending the teams into intermission tied 1-1.
 
The Ravens took the lead early in the second period thanks to a power play goal from Boivin to put the visitors up by one. Despite being outshot by the Mustangs 16-11 in the third, the Ravens added one more goal in the frame as Chapman powered his way to the front of the net and sent the puck across the line to give Carleton a 3-1 lead after 40 minutes.
 
"I think we just have to be a little bit simpler sometimes," says Stefano when asked about the Mustangs failing to capitalize on some of their chances. "[We need to] make quicker passes or just get more pucks to the net and we should have some better results."
 
Western bounced back in the third period, coming out strong with a wrap-around goal from Sinclair just three minutes into the frame. However, just as they did in the first period the Ravens responded quickly, with Hedges scoring a power play goal a little over two minutes later to reinstate Carleton's two-goal lead.
 
The Mustangs continued to press in the final minutes, including a power play goal from Cobbold to pull Western to within one with a little over six minutes left, but they ultimately ran out of time and Carleton skated away with the 4-3 win.
 
Although the purple and white didn't come away with a victory, a definite bright spot was the play of goaltender Dan Davies. Injuries have played havoc with the Mustangs goaltending situation early in the season, and coach Singer turned to Davies on Friday night, with the first-year netminder making 26 saves in the loss.
 
"Dan has come in in the last week or so and done a great job for us," says head coach Clarke Singer of the rookie, "Obviously he's never played at this level but we can't ask anything more from him. He's done everything we've asked of him and hopefully he's got another good game in him tomorrow night"
 
Western will be back in action tomorrow night when they welcome the Ottawa Gee-Gees to Thompson Arena in a game that will see the team honour legendary Mustang Chris McCauley by retiring his number five jersey. Game time is set for 7 p.m. at Thompson Arena, and fans can watch all the action live on OUA.tv