LONDON, Ont. – The Western Mustangs took a 4-2 victory over the Lakehead Thunderwolves Friday night at Thompson arena in the first game of their home ice doubleheader.

Coming out of last weekend with zero points, Western hoped to redeem themselves with two wins against Lakehead. Two points would secure them third place entering the playoffs. The Thunderwolves looked to squeeze out of their last place tie with Waterloo and clinch a playoff spot. 
 
Western's goals were scored by Kenny Huether and Adam Sinclair, with a pair from Spenser Cobbold. Lakehead's offence was provided by Dexter Kuczek and Josh Laframboise. 
 
One minute into the first period, Western marked the first goal of the game. After Mitchell Fitzmorris' offensive zone dump-in was deflected in front of the net, the puck spat out into the slot where Huether sealed the deal for the Mustangs. 
 
"I jumped on that puck in the first shift, which is always nice going up one goal," said Huether. 
 
With seven minutes left, Western extended their lead to two goals after a Cordell James dug the puck out of a neutral zone battle on the boards and passed it across the top of the circles to Sinclair, who rang the puck off the bar and in on Devin Green's glove side. 
 
"It was a great play by the guys to get the puck north, and Cordell made a nice pass over to me. I just put a puck on net, and luckily it went in," noted Sinclair. 
 
At the end of the first frame, Western led the game 2-0 against Lakehead. Despite the score on the clock, the shots were tied at 7-7.  

Lakehead came out flying at the start of the second period, netting a goal just over a minute in. Kuczek skated across the crease and roofed it on Mustangs' goalie Luke Peressini. This would be the only goal of the frame. 
 
"There were a lot of turnovers in the second period I didn't like," said Mustangs' assistant coach Patrick Ouellet. "The first goal, a breakaway, we turned the puck over at the offensive blue line, and we have been talking about that since September." 
 
Western had outshot the Thunderwolves 15-11 by the time the clock ran out. 

The third period began with two Western players getting sent to the penalty box. Sinclair was the star of the special teams unit, displaying a good stick on the five on three and making the Thunderwolves defenseman cough up on the puck on the blue line. Sinclair went down on a breakaway, and despite not finishing on the play, he and the rest of the unit were able to kill off the two-man deficit.  
 
Halfway through the final frame, Trevor Warnaar went down on a two on two with Cobbold. Warnaar made the pass across to his linemate, who found the back of the net on Green. This two goal lead would only last about 20 seconds, after Laframboise of the Thunderwolves marked another goal to keep the score within one.  
 
Cobbold scored the empty-netter insurance marker with 1:30 left in the final period to secure the 4-2 win for the Mustangs. Western will enter the playoffs locked in third place, while Lakehead was eliminated from playoff contention. 
 
"We were more focusing on wrapping up or clinching third place more than beating them out of the playoffs. They were fighting for their lives; we were fighting for third place," said Ouellet.
 
Despite tomorrow's game being essentially meaningless in the standings for Western, Western's assistant coach still believes there are things the team can work on.  

"I think we need to take care of the puck," he said. "That is our biggest downfall. We have the puck 200 feet from our net, but we just give it away. We need to keep it in our skates, use our cycle, use our puck protection a little bit better." 
 
The Mustangs are back at their doubleheader against Lakehead tomorrow, February 9 at 4:00pm for their last regular season game of the 2018/2019 season. Fans can catch all the action live, at OUA.tv.