The Western women's hockey team dropped a 3-1 tilt against the Laurentian Voyageurs on Friday evening at Thompson Arena.
 
Despite outshooting their opponents 37-26, the Mustangs weren't able to get the finish to propel them to a win as the Voyageurs kept the Mustangs offence to the perimeter, and prevented any pressure in tight. Laurentian goaltender Shanna Dolighan was also a key factor in stifling the Western offence, as she shut down 36 of the 37 shots.
 
Head Coach Candice Moxley commented, "I thought that we started to get pucks through. We weren't getting our bodies in front of their goaltender and making her life difficult. She kicked out some pretty hot rebounds, and we have to be ready for those, and we have to be ready to pay the price to get the job done at the net. We had a lot of great chances, but it's just one of those games where we ran into a hot goaltender and they capitalized on opportunities that we gave them."
 
In the first period, the two teams took some time familiarizing themselves with each other's' offensive and defensive systems. The Voyageurs were the first to turn on the jets, however, as the Mustangs let a partial breakaway through, and Natalie Lamarche ripped home a rebound off of Megan Arnott's breakaway shot past Western goaltender Tareya Webster. The rest of the period would see the Mustangs try to regain their footing and fight to ensure that the Voyageurs had only a one goal lead going into the first intermission.
 
In the middle frame, continuing into the first ten minutes of the last period, no player lit up the scoreboard, thought there were certainly many opportunities as both teams were given three power play opportunities each. Eventually, with five minutes to go in the game, Laurentian defender Regan Toltesi picked up a rebound that popped out of Webster's glove and buried a goal past the blocker side of the Western netminder. The Voyageurs at that point certainly had swung the momentum in their favour, but the Mustangs weren't ready to give up just yet.
 
Moxley pulled their netminder and went with the 6-on-5 player advantage with three minutes to go, and the Western Mustangs absolutely piled on the pressure while keeping the puck safe, resulting in a goal by Western forward Hannah Irwin who roofed the puck off the toe of her blade into the far corner past Dolighan. It wasn't enough though, as the Voyageurs sealed the deal with an empty net goal with just four seconds to go.
 
This loss is consistent of the team's track record on the season so far, as after winning three games in a row early in the season, the team went on to ricochet back and forth between winning and losing for ten straight games.
 
"We've been trying to figure it out, and we have a bit of a younger line-up, so experience plays into it. We have a lot of young players who are getting that experience now, so down the road they'll know what to do and rise to the occasion. We hope that they learn from this quickly as the second half of the season approaches - everybody's got to play like a vet," said Moxley.
 
The Mustangs will head back to the drawing board to try and turn things around, but they'll have to do it quick as their next game against the Nipissing Lakers happens tomorrow, January 25^th on home ice at Thompson Arena. Tickets for that game can be purchased at www.westernmustangs.ca/tickets .