London, ON – In one of the most chaotic games of their season, the Western Mustangs powered to a 6-3 win over the Waterloo Warriors on Saturday night at Thompson Arena.
"We just have to stick together and lead on the ice that's how we'll turn things around," said captain Shane Bulitka post-game.
The game opened with intensity right away. Western took a penalty just one minute in, giving Waterloo an early power play, but the Mustangs killed it off. Four minutes later, Western earned their first power play and made it count. At 5:59, Eric Van Impe scored a goal with help from Owen Saye, giving Western a 1-0 lead.
Waterloo responded less than a minute later to tie the game 1-1. The rest of the period saw steady traffic to the penalty box for both teams. Neither side capitalized, and the first period ended even at 1-1.
Western wasted no time in the second, just 43 seconds into the frame, Christiano Aiello picked up a loose puck and scored unassisted to make it 2–1. The momentum kept building. At 3:46, Aidan Prueter made it 3-1 with assists from Jacob Santerre and Tye McSorley, extending the lead to 3-1 less than four minutes into the period. At 6:04, four players received penalties, including fighting, roughing, and misconducts on both sides. But Western didn't let the chaos slow them down.
At 7:29, Shane Bulitka added another, burying a setup from Jacob Dietz and Nicholas Yearwood for a 4-1 lead. "It was a wide-open net and my linemate made a smart play off the pad, and it came right to me," Bulitka said.
Waterloo cut the lead on a power-play goal with seven minutes left, but Western answered just 20 seconds later when Brett Willits jumped into the rush and scored, assist from Drew Wawrow, to restore the three-point lead at 5-2. Both teams continued to trade penalties late in the frame, and misconducts, but Western kept control and finished the period up 4-2 on the scoreboard.
Just 25 seconds into the third, Willits scored his second of the night, going 1-on-2 through the Waterloo defense and finishing on a strong individual effort to make it 5-2. Waterloo answered at 3:49 to cut it to 5-3, but the Mustangs tightened defensively and shut down a Warriors power play midway through the period.
In the final minutes, Waterloo pulled their goalie to push for a comeback. Western sealed the win when Owen MacNeil scored an empty-netter with 40 seconds remaining, closing out a high-energy 6-3 victory. Goaltender Jack McNaughton finished with 18 saves and stayed calm through a penalty-heavy night.
"The guys put together a complete game. Our group did a good job managing their emotions and channeling it the right way. It was a solid effort by everyone," Head Coach Clark Singer said
The Mustangs are on Friday, November 21, at 7:00 p.m. when they host the Windsor Lancers at Thompson Arena.
