London, ON- The Western Mustangs fight hard but fall to the Nipissing Lakers 4-3, in overtime.

Your Western Mustangs are against the Nipissing Lakers for their second game of this two game weekend. Yesterday, against the Windsor Lancers, the Mustangs fell in overtime 3-2 but fought hard for the whole game. Today, they are looking for a win.

The first period starts off strong, with the Mustangs dominating in the Lakers end. The Mustangs forecheck puts pressure on the Lakers defense, a great way to start the game off. Feeling the pressure of this, the Lakers generate a couple breakouts into the Mustangs end, and Kaitlyn Booth, Mustangs goalie, shuts down any goal opportunity the Lakers attempt to create. Both teams make great use of the span of the ice this game as many passing plays allow for the play to move from end to end. The dominant team of the game throughout the first period continues to be the Mustangs as they take advantage of the two back to back penalties taken by the Lakers, who are known to play a physical game. With five minutes left in the first period, the Mustangs take their first penalty of the game, giving the Lakers a one player advantage and before that penalty was killed, the Mustangs take another. Fortunately, even with a five on three game, the Mustangs run down the clock on both penalties. Although, shortly after, a scramble at the Mustangs net ends with the opening goal by the Lakers. The first period comes to an end with a score of 1-0, Lakers. 

The second period begins with an abrupt penalty taken by the Lakers, giving the Mustangs a perfect chance to tie the game up 1-1, but the Mustangs don't capitalize on this opportunity. The first main excitement of the second period is a goal from your Western Mustangs to tie up the game at a score of 1-1. Hailey Kirkpatrick gets the Mustangs first goal of the game from Kennedy Ward and Sarah Irwin from a scramble at the Lakers net. The second period sees a lot of back and forth action with not many plays going towards the net at either end. The clock winds down to zero in the second period with the score remaining the same as the first period has seen the most action in this game so far.

The third period, start identical to the second period, with a penalty taken by the Lakers not even two minutes in. This is the Mustangs opportunity to take the lead of the game. Unfortunately, the Mustangs take two penalties shortly after, therefore, their one player advantage is handed to the Lakers. This leads to a goal by the Lakers to take the lead 2-1 with fifteen minutes left in the last period of the game. With this momentum, the Lakers get another goal from a two on one play, only ten seconds after their previous one. The Mustangs start to fight back harder to increase their points on the scoreboard. With five minutes left in the game, Hannah Irwin, from the Mustangs, takes a beautiful shot landing in the top corner of the Lakers net to bring the score up 3-2 for the Lakers. Shortly after, Irwin again, gets the rebound on a previous shot to tie the game up 3-3! The Mustangs Head Coach, Candice Moxley, says "Hannah played outstanding in the third period there with getting in the net front and into those spaces so she definitely deserves some recognition there." With one minute left in the period, and overtime looming on the ice, a penalty is called on the Mustangs giving the Lakers a chance to end it here. The buzzer goes in the third period and to overtime we go, for the second time this weekend. The Mustangs will start overtime still killing off their penalty.

Similarly to the game yesterday against the Windsor Lancers, overtime ends very quickly with a goal from the Lakers, ending the game with a score of 4-3.

The Mustangs next game will be, January 20th, against the Toronto Varsity Blues at 7:00pm on the road. Be sure to check out the live action of that game at OUA.tv.