The Western Mustangs' women's hockey pulled off a triumphant win over the Windsor Lancers Saturday afternoon at Thompson Arena. The Mustangs, after coming home last night from a 3 – 0 loss against the Toronto Varsity Blues, revived their offence to put on a stellar offensive performance.
Western took some time to find their footing early in the first, especially after a fluky goal from Windsor at the one minute mark that sailed from the blue line past Mustangs goaltender Tareya Webster. However, the team responded quickly and assertively as they went on the score three unanswered goals, which would win them the game.
Barely a minute after Windsor's marker, Mustangs rookie Sophie Young deflected Sarah Irwin's shot past Lancers netminder Molly Jenkins to get Western on the board. This was Young's first goal of the season and first career OUA goal, as she had just returned to the line-up six games ago after recovering from knee surgery over the summer.
Head Coach Candice Moxley excitedly commented, "It was great to see Sophie score. She came back from knee surgery this summer and she was cleared to play right after Christmas. She's been great for us – she's a great personality in the locker room, she's a team-first [player] through and through, and I think the girls were really excited to see her score that goal as well."
Young, commenting on her injury and first few games back, added, "I think a lot of coming back from injury is just having a positive mindset and staying focused on your end goal, which is coming back to the line-up and making contributions each night. I think this game was a combination of keeping [myself] going and staying positive throughout the injury, which is not a positive thing. I owe it a lot to my teammates for their support and their help"
Nearing the hallway point of the first period, Emma Thomas saw April Clark skating to the net and sauced the puck towards Clark for an easy tap-in game-winning goal, making the score 2 – 1 for the Mustangs. Thomas then added her own tally three minutes later on the power play, as she took a slapper from the blue line to make it 3 – 1.
The game over-all was a dominant display of offence from the Western Mustangs. They were able to keep possession of the puck for extended periods of time, and often skated circles around Windsor players in the offensive zone. However, it was a highly physical affair as well, as both teams were whistled more than a few times, notably for roughing, body checking, and cross-checking. The Mustangs were able to stay on top, however, and killed off four penalties to stay perfect on the night. The power-play marker by Thomas was especially relieving, as the league's first place power-play finally managed to score one after not being able to convert the night before on any of the seven opportunities they were given.
The Mustangs currently sit in seventh place in the standings, one point ahead of Queen's, who will be their next opponent. That matchup will be on Friday, February 7
th at 7:30PM in Kingston, ON. The game can be streamed live at
https://oua.yaretv.com/ .
