LONDON, Ont. – Western's 2-0 win over the Waterloo Warriors was decided in the first 20 minutes Sunday afternoon at Thompson Arena.
"Special teams—we have to win those games and those small games within the game itself," said Mustangs' head coach Candice Moxley. "Tonight the girls played really hard within our PK, and we studied their systems, and we blocked shots. You have to pay the price if you want to kill, and we found those players in our lineup that are stepping into those roles and getting the job done."
For their last regular season game on home ice, the Mustangs honoured their graduating players and student trainers. Shailyn Waites, Edie Levesque, Evra Levesque, Catherine O'Connor, and Anthea Lasis received jerseys and flowers from the coaches to commemorate their contributions to the women's hockey program.
"It's honestly an honour to wear the Western Mustangs' logo," said Waites. "It's good to keep that legacy living, and I'm glad to be ending my career with the Western Mustangs."
Emma Suitor and Shana Alexander both scored their third goals of the season in the first period. Carmen Lasis secured her second shutout of the weekend, and her sixth of the season.
Seven minutes into the first frame, Suitor picked up Alexander's rebound and found a hole to mark the first goal of the game.
Western received the sole penalty of the period, but their aggressive penalty kill did not allow any Waterloo shots.
With two minutes left in the first, April Clark made a clean pass to Alexander in front of the net. Alexander fired it through Warrior goaltender Amanda Smith to end the frame 2-0 for the Mustangs.
"[Clark]'s obviously amazing," said Alexander. "She got the puck on the boards and just saw that I was open in front of the net and made a great pass like she always does."
Western fired 17 shots on Smith to Waterloo's eight on Carmen Lasis, but there were no goals in the second period, and each team only got one penalty.
In the final frame, the Mustangs received three penalties. The Warriors only got one shot on their first power play, and Western made five full ice clears. Waterloo shot twice on Carmen Lasis on the second, but only managed one shot again for their third power play. Although the Mustangs only made two full ice clears on their last two penalty kills, their well-placed sticks in the defensive zone stopped most of the Warriors' shots.
Waterloo pulled Smith with three minutes of play to go. Despite outshooting Western 12-5 in the final period, they could not create any scoring opportunities, and the Mustangs won 2-0.
With the win, Western remains in second place with 48 points and a record of 14-4-1-4. The Warriors are 10-7-1-4 and sit seventh in the OUA.
"I have to go back and watch film on Windsor and how they played this weekend and see what we can do in terms of their tendencies and where we can expose them," said Moxley, looking ahead to next weekend. "They're a big, physical team so it's going to be a tough game for us, but again it's important for us to get these points."
The Mustangs' last regular season game is Saturday at 4:00pm in Windsor against the Lancers. Fans can tune in to OUA.tv to catch the action live.
