LONDON, Ont. – Special teams proved to be the difference on Saturday night, as the Western Mustangs scored three power play goals in a 3-1 win over the UOIT Ridgebacks on Saturday night at Thompson Arena.
 
"We got three power play goals, which certainly helped build momentum, especially in the third period," said Mustangs head coach Kelly Paton. "A lot of kill situations in the second half of the game, so the girls did a good job there on getting clears and not allowing them to generate any momentum off their 5-on-4s."
 
With the win the Mustangs improve to 4-1-1-1 on the year and are in sole possession of second place in the OUA standings, while the Ridgebacks now sit at 2-2-4-1.
 
April Clark, Evra Levesque, and Rachel Armstrong provided the Mustangs offence on Saturday night. Clark's goal marks her fifth of the season, putting her into a tie for first place on the OUA goal scoring leaderboard. Katie Heath tallied the Ridgebacks lone goal in the loss.
 
Western limited the Ridgebacks to 22 shots on net, only allowing one puck to slip past Mustang goaltender Tareya Webster during her second game of the season.
 
"I'm feeling such support when I'm going to the net, and obviously I'm grateful to have the opportunity from my coach to play," said Webster. "I honestly just love playing hockey and I love playing it in back with the team I have, so it's really great just to have that opportunity to play."
 
With three and a half minutes left in the first period, a quick shot off a pass and into the corner of the net gave Clark the first goal of the game.
 
Unwilling to let Western keep the lead for long, UOIT got on the board with 25 seconds left, to end the frame in a 1-1 tie.
 
Neither team could break the tie in a penalty-heavy second period. The back and forth play extended the deadlock until six minutes into the final frame when Evra Levesque scored 18 seconds into a Mustang power play.
 
Armstrong then added the insurance marker midway through the third to give the Mustangs a 3-1 win.
 
Western has one more game on the schedule this week, as they'll take on the first place Queen's Gaels on Sunday.
 
"We know Queen's is top of our league right now, so we expect them to be hard on pucks and compete well around battle situations. So for us, just managing the puck well and supporting and making sure we get the pucks deep so we can establish a fore-check early," she listed as goals to secure their third win in a row.
 
The Mustangs will be back on home ice when they face Queen's tomorrow afternoon at 3 p.m. Tune in to OUA.tv to catch the action live.