London, ON – The Mustangs had plenty of opportunities to score but just couldn't find the bounces, combine that with a dreadful start to the third period and Western drops a 5-2 loss to the uOttawa Gee-Gees on Saturday afternoon.
"I think we executed on a lot of the things we talked about this week, I thought we had a lot of o-zone possession and plays, we attacked the net a lot more, we just couldn't find the bounces," said Mustangs Associate Coach Patrick Ouellet "We've gotta get out of this funk and find a way to win a game here, we're not playing badly, we have strong stretches quite a bit but the lulls seems to come back to bite us,"
The Mustangs opened the scoring just 7:27 into the 1
st period. While on the power play Eric Van Impe walked the boards and into open space just beyond the face off dot and then fed a one time pass to Christian Aiello who fired the puck into the Ottawa net to give Western a 1-0 lead.
Just after the midway point of the period Ottawa would get a marker of their own to even the game at 1-1, that score would hold up through the end of the 1
st period.
Both sides would battle in the 2
nd period, combining for 10 penalties between both sides but no scoring in the 2
nd period meant it was 1-1 after 40 minutes.
To start the 3
rd period, Ottawa came out firing, scoring twice within the first 1:02 of the period to extend their lead to 3-1. The Gee-Gees would go on to score on their next two shots as well and take a 5-1 lead just after the 5:30 mark of the third period. Both sides would combine for another 10 penalties in the period.
Western would convert later in the third period while on the man advantage. Jake Gravelle skated the puck into the offensive zone, and dropped the puck to Christiano Aiello who slid the puck across the slot to Eric Van Impe who sent the one-timer into the Ottawa net to bring the Mustangs to a 5-2 deficit.
The late goal wasn't enough to mount a comeback and Western would fall to that 5-2 score and drops the Mustangs to an 0-7 record to start the year.
"I think we out shot them tonight, it was the same thing against Carelton last night," said Ouellet "It looks like we are deflated by the scoreboard but we definitely aren't, guys are jumping into action and engaging after we get scored on and I want to keep seeing that battle from our guys,"
Next weekend the Mustangs are headed to Thunder Bay as they will take on the Lakehead Thunderwolves for a pair of games. The first game is Friday night (Nov 3) at 7:00 PM, Mustangs fans can watch the action on OUA.tv.
