London, ON – Mustangs put up a solid effort, outshooting the top team in the West in Nipissing but fell 3-1 on Friday night.
"I thought we held in there, I thought we did really well to get pucks on their net and generate some chances," said Mustangs Head Coach Candice Moxley "I would have loved to see our girls finish a little bit more, I thought we had the chances but just couldn't bury them,"
Western outshot the Lakers in the opening 20 minutes, 10-9 but Nipissing got the lone goal of the period just past the midway point of the frame and held a 1-0 win at the intermission.
The Lakers doubled their lead in the second period with a goal just past the 7-minute mark and would hold the 2-0 lead after 2 periods.
In the third period, the Mustangs would find the scoreboard. Leah Barnard picked the puck off at the Nipissing blue line and chipped it into the offensive zone corner where Haylie Kirkpatrick held the puck and then fed a cross-crease pass back to Barnard who tipped the puck into the Lakers goal and cut their lead to 2-1.
Western put a full-force effort on throughout the remainder of regulation, putting 16 total shots on the Nipissing net but weren't able to get a bounce and the Lakers got a late empty netter to finish out the 3-1 win.
"She (Chantelle Sandquist, Nipissing Goalie) is a pretty good goaltender and has been steady for them for a number of years, so we knew we would have to make it tough for her tonight," said Moxley "We were looking to capitalize off rebounds and anything on the ice where she had to move would have been to our advantage,"
The Mustangs now look to their final weekend of games for the 2023 portion of the schedule next Friday & Saturday against Queen's & York.
"The girls always like being on the road, it's a good team bonding and team building opportunity for us to be together at the hotels and hanging out so I think we are looking forward to it,"
Fans can watch the action on OUA.tv. Be sure to also check out WesternMustangs.ca to get your tickets for the second half of the season.
