LONDON, Ont. – After 65 minutes of play wern't enough to decide a winner, Maggie Spratt-Mallick played the hero on Friday night, scoring the lone goal in the shootout to lift the Brock Badgers over the Western Mustangs by a 2-1 score at Thompson Arena.
 
"Full credit to their goalie, I think she played extremely well for them, but for us we're focusingon a 60-minute game and I don't know if we got that tonight," said Mustangs head coach Kelly Paton. "We were good at times, and there were moments where we could probably be a lot better, so I think all in all give us a good effort, but our execution could have been a lot better."
 
The loss is the Mustangs first of the season, and gives the team a 2-0-1-0 record early in the campaign, while Brock moves to 1-1-1-0 on the year.
 
Saturday's contest came down to a shootout, with Brock netminder Jensen Murphy stopping all three shots she faced, while the Badgers were able to slip a lone goal past Carmen Lasis with Spratt-Mallick providing the game winner.
 
Both goaltenders put in stellar performances on Friday, with Murphy making 42 saves in the win, while Lasis countered with 34 stops in her regular season debut on home ice.
 
Prior to the shootout the game's only offence came in the opening period with Megan Taylor scoring first for the Mustangs, before Kimberly Brown tied things up for the Badgers.
 
Both teams took a few minutes to get their footing in the first period, setting up a back-and-forth affair for the early portion of the opening period.
 
Western began to take control of the game near the midway point of the first period as the Badgers took three consecutive penalties within a little more than three minutes. The Badgers defence shut down the Mustangs 5-on-3 power play, but the Mustangs wouldn't be denied a power play goal as captain Emma Pearson and Taylor combined to sneak the puck past Murphy and give the Mustangs a 1-0 lead at the 13-minute mark.
 
Not three minutes later, Brock capitalized on their own power play, scoring 10 seconds into Western's penalty as Brown tied the score with a slapshot.
 
Both teams generated scoring chances in a hard-fought second period, but the goaltenders at each end of the ice were able to keep the game tied at 1-1 through 40 minutes.
 
The deadlock continued through the third period, with neither team able to secure a scoring opportunity. Penalty and goal-less, play was relatively whistle free, sending the game to overtime with the game tied at one goal apiece.
 
Western dominated the extra frame with a number of nice rushes and strong passing, however each scoring opportunity was stymied by Murphy or would go just wide of the net. As the clock ticked down to zero without a goal from either team, the game progressed to the shootout.
 
With Lasis and Murphy going head-to-head in net, Spratt-Mallick scored the only goal of the shootout to claim a 2-1 win for the Badgers.
 
The Mustangs won't have long to wait before trying to bounce back after tonight's contest, with the team set to take on the Ryerson Rams on Saturday night at Thompson Arena.
 
"We need to improve on playing a full 60 minutes. I mean we took some shifts off…and we can't win a game when we don't play a full 60 minutes," said forward April Clark on what the team needs to workon heading into Saturday's game with Ryerson.
 
Game time for Saturday's matchup with the Rams is set for 7 p.m. at Thompson Arena. Fans can catch all the action live on OUA.tv