London, ON – A pair of goals from Sydnee Baker led the Mustangs to a 3-0 shutout of the Queen's Gaels on Friday night.
The first two periods were fairly tight but neither team was able to find the back of the net.
"I thought the girls came out strong and we were hitting all of the goals that we wanted at the beginning of the game," said Mustangs Head Coach Candice Moxley "We wanted to set the tempo, play hard and play fast and it may have taken a little longer to solve their goaltender tonight but I think the girls deserved that win tonight."
The Mustangs opened the scoring just over two minutes into the 3rd period. Sam Wood fed a cross-ice pass to Sydnee Baker who lined up a wrister from the opposite side faceoff dot and beat Queen's goaltender Kathryn Jalink.
"In between periods Coach (Moxley) said on your stick, off your stick so that's exactly what I was going for there," said Baker "It may have rainbowed a little bit but it went in so that's all that matters."
The Mustangs would bookend the period with goals as with just over two minutes left, The puck was thrown in front of the net and April Clark would bat the puck into the Queen's goal to make it 2-0.
"It doesn't have to be pretty, at the start of the season we wanted all those pretty goals but we need to get in the paint and pay the price sometimes," said Moxley.
Western would add an empty-net goal from Sydnee Baker to round out the 3-0 win.
Tareya Webster made 29 saves on the night for the 1st shutout of her OUA career.
"It's definitely rare to get a shutout in this league so it feels good because it doesn't come often." said Webster "I thought the team was on fire tonight and it made it really comforting when we get the goals going and by the third (period) we had a good feeling that we had the win."
The Mustangs move to 8th spot in the standings with 24 points with the win.
Turnaround time is quick as they will host the Ontario Tech Ridgebacks Saturday afternoon at Thompson Arena.
"Recovery is everything for sure, I'm heading into an ice bath after this interview and going to try and get as much rest as possible and be ready to go tomorrow," said Webster
Saturday's game will also be the Mustangs Hockey Fights Cancer day as both the Women's & Men's teams will be raising awareness and funds at their games. Donations can be made at the game or online at https://bit.ly/3a03pbt.
"We are going to have a ceremonial puck drop with the family of someone who has lost a loved one to cancer who is connected to our team, we will also have a memorial wall in concourse of the arena and we hope as many people as possible participate in that to show support for those battling cancer and their loved ones."
Puck-drop is set for 2:30 pm on Saturday afternoon.
