Western scores early and often in Game One victory over Laurier

LONDON, Ont. – Just four days ago, Western was on the wrong end of an offensive barrage from the Waterloo Warriors in their final regular season contest.
 
On Wednesday night, the Mustangs flipped the script on another team from Waterloo, scoring four within the first 24 minutes on their way to a big 8-3 Game One victory over the Laurier Golden Hawks at Thompson Arena. Western now leads 1-0 in the best-of-three series.
 
The final score doesn't tell the whole story, as the Golden Hawks managed to fight back from a four-goal deficit to bring the game back within two goal early in the third. But Mustangs head coach Clarke Singer wasn't overly concerned about his team entertaining a comeback.
 
"It's a playoff game," Singer said when asked about Laurier's late push. "Two good hockey teams going at it and obviously I don't think the game was a five-goal differential as it turned out in the scoreboard—it was a much tougher game between the whistles than that."
 
The momentum seemed to be on Western's side right from the get-go. The Mustangs came out hard, limiting Laurier to just a single shot through the first ten minutes while scoring a goal of their own. A big mid-ice hit from 6'6 defender Jed Rusk seemed to give Western some extra energy late in the frame and Andrew Goldberg cashed in with a goal just seconds later. 
 
Goldberg had both of Western's first period goals, firing a bullet off the cross-bar and in for his first before tipping in his second off a point-shot from Noah Schwartz, who also had the primary assist on Goldberg's opener. By the time five minutes had clicked off the clock in the second period, both players had already registered three points on the night.
 
"It was a good effort all around," said Goldberg. "A couple breakdowns in the second and the third period which we'll figure out and work on in practice tomorrow but overall it was a good effort, a good game, and we're looking forward to game two."
 
Trent Ouellette and Alex Micallef added goals early in the second period to give Western a 4-0 lead with over 36 minutes left to play. Ouellette's goal, which spelled the end of the night for Laurier starter Colin Furlong, came five seconds into an early power play while Micallef's was the result of an excellent passing play between him and Stephen Sanza on the rush.
 
Ouellete's goal was one of two power play markers on the night for Western, both of which came off the stick of the sophomore forward. It was a nice coming out party for a Western power play that just couldn't seem to get it going in the second half of the year, and to top it all off the penalty kill only allowed one goal on six Laurier chances.
 
"We had two goals on special teams so that's good and the only goal we allowed on the kill was at 5-on-3," said Singer. "We had some really big kills when it was 5-3 there late so overall very, very good on special teams for us."
 
Still, Western excelled most at five-on-five, especially for stretches in the second period. Sophomore Cody Brown, who finished with a goal and an assist, and rookie Ray Huether provided plenty to cheer about at even strength in the second, both taking opportunities to dance around Laurier defenders and show off their creativity with the puck.
 
"Even strength, for sure," responded Goldberg when asked the best part of Western's game Wednesday. "We capitalized on our power plays but I think even strength we were definitely able to score goals, which is always important, [and] minimize their shots on net."
 
The Mustangs fired a game-high 17 shots at Laurier's goaltenders in the second period but the Golden Hawks still managed to squeeze in some offence of their own, getting a goal from Christian Mroczkowski and a five-on-three marker from Derek Schoenmakers, who used his dangerous shot to send a no-doubter past a sprawling Greg Dodds.
 
Dodds final stats—20 saves on 23 shots—don't do the junior goaltender justice, as he was forced to make some excellent saves to keep the momentum in Western's favour throughout the game. His excellent effort was noticed both by his teammates and his coach.
 
"Doddsey played really well," said Goldberg. "A couple breakdowns [on offence and defence], which doesn't help. It's going to happen, it's playoffs, pucks are bouncing all over the place. Whoever's in net next game, it doesn't matter. They're both exceptionally good goaltenders and they're both obviously going to help us win the game."
 
Western will take their one game lead on the road and try to complete the sweep on Friday, as they head to Waterloo for a 7 p.m. matchup. After the game, coach Singer was asked what the Mustangs need to work on in advance of a big Game Two.
 
"Probably play a little more disciplined than we did tonight and continue our great effort on defence," said Singer. That's very, very important and if we can win the special teams battle again like we did tonight, that'll go a long way to getting us the second win."
 
NOTES: Besides those from Schwartz, Sanza, Brown, Ouellette, and Goldberg, Western's other multi-point games came from David Corrente (2a) Shaun Furlong (1g, 1a) and Spenser Cobbold (2a). Furlong and Cobbold teamed up twice in the third period to provide late insurance for Western. Cobbold fed Furlong a cross-crease pass for Western's seventh of the night before the two players combined to set up Brown for the eighth and final goal… Goldberg, Brown, Sanza, Robert Polesello, and Cobbold all had the first playoff points of their OUA careers on Wednesday…

Source: Western Mustangs