London, ON – A pair of goals within thirty seconds and a highlight reel goal led the Mustangs to a game one win over Waterloo on Wednesday night.
 
Western started out the scoring just 4:19 into the period. Evra Levesque walked out from the corner of the Waterloo zone and wristed a shot over the shoulder of Warriors goaltender Amanda Smith to make it 1-0.

The Mustangs would keep the offense going just twenty-three seconds later. Catherine O'Connor would strip the puck off the stick of the Waterloo defender inside the Warriors blue line, O'Connor skated the puck down the wall and threw the puck towards the net, it would bounce off the defenceman and into the Waterloo net to extend the Western lead to 2-0.
 
The pair of goals would force the Warriors to call a time-out.
 
"I carried the puck in, I was actually looking to pass the puck to Hannah (Irwin) but good things happen when you put pucks to the net" O'Connor commented post game. "It's my last year so I am just looking to have fun out there, work hard. Not too concerned about points but definitely felt good to score and help out the team."
 
The Warriors would respond in the second half of the period. After Waterloo's Courtney Simpson threw the puck on the Western net, the rebound would drop in front of the Mustangs net and Cynthia Cavanagh would hop on it and shovel the puck in to cut the Western lead to 2-1
 
"I thought we had good momentum and tempo right off the bat. We capitalized early and then we took a bit of a deep breath and they responded. "said Candice Moxley, Western's Head Coach. "Overall the girls battled, played hard and blocked some pretty big chances at the end of the game."
 
Western would extend their lead again in the 2^nd period. After a scramble in the corner of the Waterloo zone, Beatrice Arsenault Dufour would pick up the puck along the wall and cut to the middle of the ice and fired a dazzling backhand shot to the top corner over Smith's shoulder to make it 3-1.
 
"Their player wasn't covering me well, I pinched and managed to cut to the middle and just backhanded it" Arsenault Dufour said after the game. "Never really expected it to go in, just heard it hit the post and go in."
 
Waterloo would bring the game back within reach in the 3^rd period off the stick of Taytum Clairmont which made it a 3-2 game.
 
Late in the 3^rd the Warriors would pull the goalie and put on the pressure. They would send several shots on net, but a good defensive effort combined with solid work by Western goaltender Carmen Lasis killed off the remaining time on the clock to secure the win.
 
"This gives us an edge going into that second game." said Moxley "All we have to do now is to play a solid 60 minutes of hockey and get a few behind their goalie so I think this gives us a huge step up."
 
Western now heads to Waterloo for game 2 on Saturday afternoon at 2:30pm. You can watch all the action on OUA.tv