Box Score London, ON – The Mustangs put forth one of their most complete efforts of the season but weren't able to find the win against Carleton on Friday night as they dropped a 5-2 game against Carleton.
"I thought it was our best 60 minute effort of the year so far," said Mustangs Head Coach Clarke Singer post game "I thought out chanced them, it was a pretty good effort but we just didn't manage the puck a couple times, once in the first period and again in the third and they made us pay for those mistakes,"
While Western was down 2-0 after the first period, it wasn't for a lack of effort as they out shot the Ravens 9-5 but were behind by a pair going into the intermission.
Early in the second period, the Mustangs took advantage of some solid puck movement as Jake Gravelle sent the puck on the Carleton net where Tye McSorley was sitting on the doorstep and redirected the shot into Carletons net to cut the Ravens lead to 2-1.
"We're trying to work our high to low a lot and Gravelle got a nice shot towards the net and saw it going a little wide so I got my stick on it and re-directed it through their guys five hole," said McSorley "We've been trying to get more of those goals and get to the dirty areas in front of the net and score some of those ones,"
After the Mustangs drew a penalty just shy of the midway point of the period, it was the Ravens who stepped up to net a short-handed marker and regained their two-goal lead. Carleton would hold on to the lead through 40 minutes at 3-1.
The Ravens took a late penalty in the 2
nd period that carried over to the 3
rd period and Western would covert again early on. Eric Van Impe took a pass at the blue line, saw some space in the offensive zone, glided his way into open ice and fired a wrister to score and pull Western to within a goal at 3-2.
While Western felt some momentum they couldn't capitalize as Carleton would add their fourth goal of the night around the five-minute mark of the third and an empty netter with just over three minutes left to finish out the 5-2 win.
"We definitely have a younger team with a lot of new forwards but I think it's definitely there for us but we just haven't found our scoring touch yet," said McSorley "I definitely think we will figure it out and I think we have a good team here,"
The Mustangs have a quick turnaround as they play again Saturday afternoon on home ice.
"We love playing at 3 o'clock so it's a great opportunity to get back at it and hopefully build on some of the good elements of tonight's game," said Singer "This week we have had a real good effort from our group at practice and some aspects of the game tonight so I am hoping to see all that come together and find a win tomorrow,"
Western will host Ottawa for a 3:00 PM puck drop at Thompson Arena. Fans can buy their tickets at WesternMustangs.ca/tickets and Western student get free admission to all on campus regular season home games with their Western ONECard.
