HOOK LONDON, Ont.— Rachel Armstrong scored all three Mustang goals to lead Western to a 3-2 win over the Windsor Lancers on Sunday afternoon at Thompson Arena.
"I thought that we did enough to win the game today, which was important," said Mustangs head coach Kelly Paton. "We spoke earlier in the week about how important the points are moving forward, and our power play came through today with two goals for us. Then obviously late in the game we did enough that we were able to get a lead, and we defended it when we needed to."
Western sits at 12-2-5-2 with the win, three points behind OUA leader Queen's. Windsor remains in last at 2-1-16-2.
Armstrong supplied all the offence for the Mustangs on Sunday, including two power play markers, to to give her eight goals this season.
Amanda Pereira recorded two assists, and now leads the Mustangs with 11 on the year.
"I was just hoping we'd come out with the win," said Armstrong. "I got some lucky bounces, but it was a good team effort all around."
Meredith Goldhawk and Larissa Borowiec provided the Lancers' offence this afternoon, recording their first and third goals of the season, respectively.
The first period ended in a deadlock, as neither team could secure a scoring opportunity. Western prevented the Lancers from recording a shot for the first nine minutes of play and outshot them eight to four through 20 minutes.
The Mustangs tallied the game's first goal four and a half minutes into the second period. Armstrong put the puck past goalie Molly Jenkins on Western's second shot of the frame, 30 seconds into their first power play of the game.
Goldhawk responded for the Lancers a little less than seven minutes later, getting a low shot past Lasis to even up the score.
With 16 seconds left in both the period and a Windsor penalty, Armstrong netted her second of the game off a cross-crease pass from April Clark.
"It was like a scramble out front, and then I turned around, the puck was right there, and I had a head up," said Clark. "I was going to shoot and [Armstong] was wide open backdoor, so I just laid it over to her and she made a beautiful goal."
The Mustangs' power plays were unstoppable in the period, scoring on both of the Lancers penalties.
"Our special teams played a huge role this whole season overall," said Armstrong. "We got a couple bad penalties there…but our PK unit did a really good job of killing it off, and obviously our power play converted quite a few times."
Windsor tied the game once again early in the third, thanks to a goal from Borowiec just over four minutes into the frame.
With the clock winding down and the Mustangs on a penalty kill, the game seemed to be building to an overtime finish. However, 10 seconds after the Mustangs third penalty kill of the third period, Armstrong scored the game-winning goal and her third of the game with 2:16 left on the clock to secure the 3-2 win for the home side.
"Me and Amanda were on the penalty kill, and she did a good job keeping it in the corner," said Armstrong of her final goal. "I think [the penalty kill] just ended, and I managed to hit it out of the air and got it in the net."
Western only has one game on the schedule next week, a road contest against York on February 3. It's an uncommon scenario for the Mustangs, as they'll then turn around and host the Lions on February 9 at Thompson Arena.
"It's a unique opportunity for us to make adjustments knowing that we're going to see the same team twice in a short period of time, which doesn't happen too often with our schedule," said Paton. "We'll take it game-by-game, but it is an advantage I think, just in making some adjustments. And then going down there, they're on a bigger ice surface too, so we may make some adjustments to our play to hopefully give us an advantage."
The Mustangs will be back on the road to face the York Lions Saturday at 7 pm. Fans can catch the action live on OUA.tv
