London, ON- The Mustangs and Lancers faced off in the second of their home and home games this weekend. Western was hoping for a repeat of last night's results, although Windsor took home the two points, winning 6-3.
There was a quick start to this afternoon's game. The Mustangs came out aggressively, trying to set the pace of the contest and continue the momentum from last night's win.
The Mustangs took less than five minutes to get themselves on the scoreboard. A solid defensive effort by Eric Van Impe generated the breakaway opportunity. Goal scorer Christiano Aiello showed tremendous speed to get behind Lancer's defence and took a quick, hard shot to get the icebreaker.
Just over one minute later, Windsor found the equalizer and quickly took the lead shortly after.
The second period consisted of seven penalties, with twenty-five total penalty minutes. The Lancers were able to capitalize on two of their four powerplays, giving them a 4-1 lead and making it more challenging for the Mustangs to get back into the game.
Late in the period, a Mustangs powerplay goal cut the Lancers lead in half. Zach Power found the puck in the scrum and buried it past Nathan Torchia, Windsor's goalie.
"The special teams were the difference in today's game," said Mustangs captain Shane Bulitka. "Their power play scored a couple and ours only had one. Too many penalties for us and we didn't cash in when we had the chances."
"It's tough to get into the flow or rhythm with your group when you're a man short. I think in the second period there were only three minutes of five-on-five play," said Head Coach Clarke Singer. "The effort both last night and tonight were two of the groups better effort we have had all year but unfortunately a couple power play goals by Windsor and we just couldn't bounce back."
The final period began with a much more complete effort by the Mustangs. Thanks to an offensive zone faceoff win by Zac McCann and a hard shot toward the net by Jake Gravelle, which McCann was able to tip in, the Mustangs were within one with lots of time left to play.
Unfortunately, Windsor found the back of the net twice more in the third period to secure the win.
"We established an identity as a team and how we want to play like for the rest of the year and we want to continue that going into the last four games of the first half of the season," said Singer.
Mustangs will make the trip to Kingston to play the RMC Paladins on Friday (Nov 24) at 7 PM. They will then take on Queens University on Saturday (Nov 25) at 2:30 before returning home to host the Windsor Lancers one last time this regular season. Mustang's fans can watch the action on OUA.tv.
