London, ON – Western has one of their most complete games of the season and down the TMU Bold 4-1 to pick up a BIG win.
As the 2022-23 season starts drawing to a close, Western needs all the points they can get to keep their playoff hopes alive.
"Every point is huge for us since basically the new year, we know have cornered ourselves a bit and we just need to win if we want to have any chance here down the stretch," said Mustangs Associate Coach Patrick Ouellet "I was really impressed with our PK tonight going 7 for 7, we haven't seen that much this year and goaltending has been huge for us lately,"
The Mustangs got on the board early when Brett Jacklin converted just 2:35 into the first period.
Western would add another goal later in the first, on the powerplay. Jake Gravelle would step into a wrister in the slot that would hit TMU goaltender Kai Edmonds and bounce in front of the net and Shane Bulitka got the last touch on it to give Western a 2-0 lead through 20 minutes.
"Those are the ones we need to capitalize on, it was just one of those dirty, greasy goals but we had the luck go our way a bit there and we need those," said Bulitka.
Western would extend their lead just under five minutes into the second period, Bulitka brought the puck into the offensive zone and dropped a pass to Gravelle who sent a laser wrist shot to the top corner of the TMU net to give Western a 3-0 lead.
"Nice play by him (Bulitka) there to get the blue, I was trying to yell at him and he heard me and made a nice drop there and I just tried getting it on net," said Gravelle "I was in his (Bulitka) ear in the 1
st intermission telling him that I helped him on his goal so he needed to help me out and he definitely came through,"
TMU would get a goal around the midway point of the second period but Western held the 3-1 lead going into the intermission.
Western would add a late empty net goal to seal the win.
The two points the Mustangs pick up with the win is a massive boost for Western's hunt toward a potential playoff spot.
"Everyone in the room knows exactly what situation we're in right now and that win puts us right in the mix for one of those final playoff spots, we will be keeping an eye on how some of the other games go this weekend because we could use some help from others," said Gravelle "At the end of the day we just need to stick to our game plan and try to claw our way in there,"
Western is set for a pair of games during the week on Tuesday & Thursday nights against the Laurier Golden Hawks, who the Mustangs are battling with for the last playoff spot.
"If we beat them, we know they aren't getting points so we've really got a couple potentials for four point games ahead of us against them, so we really need to dig deep this week if we want to see the playoffs," said Ouellet.
The Tuesday game between Western and Laurier is set for 3pm in Waterloo. Fans can watch the action on OUA.tv.
