London, ON – The Mustangs put forth one of their most complete efforts of the season to pick up a 5-2 win against Windsor on Friday night.
"I thought it took us about 10 minutes to find our legs and (Dylan) Myskiw made some great saves to keep us in it but I really liked our last 50 (minutes)" said Mustangs Head Coach Clarke Singer "I thought we played hard and smart, with everyone involved and I thought it was our best team effort at home so far this year,"
The Mustangs got the lone goal of the opening twenty minutes in the latter half of the frame with Andrew Bruder netting his 5
th goal of the season. Christiano Aiello skated the puck hard into the Windsor zone and sent a saucer pass right into the slot where Bruder made a slick chip on the backhand that fooled the Lancers goaltender to give Western the 1-0 lead through 20 minutes.
Western would get three times in the second period including goals from Shane Bulitka, Josh Leblanc & Christian Aiello in the win.
It started with a spinning pass from Jake Gravelle to keep the puck in the offensive zone while the Mustangs were on the powerplay, the pass would go right on to the stick of Eric Van Impe who sent a cross ice pass into the slot and Bulitka fired the one-timer into the Windsor net to take a 2-0 lead.
After Windsor got on the board just before the 6 minute mark of the period, Western would respond when Van Impe battled at the blue line to keep the puck in and then wristed the shot on net which hit the outside post of the Lancers goal and Leblanc jumped on the rebound to re-establish a two goal lead for Western at 3-1.
With less than a minute to go in the middle frame, Western would add to their lead when Bulitka skated through the slot and sent a backhander on net and Aiello was right on the doorstep to dig out the rebound and shovel it into the net to the Mustangs a three goal lead going into the 3
rd period.
"Just a bouncing puck, Bulitka made a great play and it just bounced out to me and I whacked it in," said Aiello "The guys are feeling good, we've definitely turned it around a bit here, we've sort of figured out we hate to lose but I think we are starting to figure things out now,"
Windsor would chip into the Western lead just under three minutes into the 3
rd period but once again the Mustangs grit and battle was on full display as just over a minute later Western skated the puck, three-wide, into the offensive zone with the puck ending up on Leblanc's stick and even with a pair of Lancers pressuring him while losing his footing, sent a heavy wrister past the Lancers goalie and regained Western's three-goal lead to round out the win.
"I was just trying to get out of the way of the first guy there, just tried to take the shot and luckily it went in, definitely put some mustard on it though," said Leblanc "It was a huge goal for us tonight and just really fortunate it went in,"
Western has one game remaining on the 2023 portion of their schedule, a Saturday afternoon tilt with the York Lions. Puck drop is scheduled for 3:15 pm in Toronto. Fans can watch the action on OUA.tv
