Corrente's OT winner sends Mustangs to OUA West Finals

LONDON, Ont. – David Corrente played the hero on Sunday night, scoring on a point shot 3:59 into overtime to send the Western Mustangs into the OUA West Finals with a 4-3 win over the Toronto Varsity Blues at Thompson Arena.
 
"We have certain overtime rules we talk about all the time. Number one is never pass up a good shot because you never know," said Mustangs head coach Clarke Singer. "Usually one shot creates two shots off a rebound, and we were fortunate that one went in and had lots of traffic at the net as well."
 
"Great job [in overtime], I think we had a really good flurry there too, with three or four minutes where we had shots with some pressure and it was nice for our captain to finally get that one."
 
Corrente's overtime winner came off of a wrist shot that managed to elude not only the traffic in front, but also Varsity Blues netminder Andrew Hunt to give the Mustangs a 2-1 series win.
 
"I think that puck had eyes," said Corrente. "I was just trying to get it on net and hope for a rebound for someone to whack it in, but fortunately for us it just went straight in."
 
Western will now square off with the Guelph Gryphons, who won Game Three of their semi-final series against Ryerson by an impressive 11-3 score on Sunday. The Mustangs have won both of their two meetings with the Gryphons this season, taking each game 3-2.
 
"One of the best goaltenders in the country, one of the hardest working teams in the country. OUA Champions last year, bronze medalists at nationals last year. [It's] going to be an incredibly tough series," said Singer of his team's opponents in the next round.
 
Along with Corrente, three other Mustangs found the back of the net on Sunday, with Trent Ouellette, Robert Polesello, and Andrew Goldberg providing the rest of the Western offence.
 
Greg Dodds got the start for the second consecutive game, and turned aside 25 of the 28 shots he faced in the win. Hunt continued his strong play for the Varsity Blues, stopping 43 shots.
 
Special teams played a key role in Sunday's contest, with the two teams combining for 44 minutes in penalties. Two of the Varsity Blues goals came on the power play, and while the Mustangs didn't register a goal with the man advantage, they did pick up a short-handed marker from Ouellette.
 
The Mustangs didn't wait long on Sunday before pressuring Hunt, taking control early in the opening period, before play began to even out towards the middle of the frame. The second half of the first stanza saw the two sides trading power plays during a six-minute span, with the Varsity Blues twice ending up with the man advantage compared to one opportunity for the Mustangs.
 
It was on the Varsity Blues second power play that the scoring opened, however it was courtesy of a short-handed marker from Ouellette. After Toronto lost the puck trying to split the Mustangs defence, Dodds sent the puck sailing down the ice to Ouellette, who corralled it deep in the Toronto zone before going around the Varsity Blues net and beating Hunt with the wrap-around goal to give the Mustangs a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes.
 
Special teams continued to play a major role in the second period, as the Varsity Blues jumped ahead 2-1 thanks to a pair of power play goals scored just under three minutes apart.
 
Patrick Marsh recorded Toronto's first goal, winning the battle for the puck along the boards before firing a bad angle shot from the corner that somehow found its way into the back of the net. Dylan Heide put the Varsity Blues in front moments later, coming in from the side boards and shooting high to give the visitors the lead.
 
Western struck back a little more than seven minutes later, as Polesello picked up a rebound off of a shot from Stephen Gaskin and pushed it past Hunt to tie the game at 2-2.
 
Goldberg put the Mustangs ahead midway through the third, before Max Lindsay responded for Toronto just over three minutes later.
 
Neither team was able to solve the other for the remainder of the period, setting the stage for overtime.
 
Western dominated the extra frame, controlling the play and preventing the Varsity Blues from even registering a shot on goal before Corrente was able to end the game just under the four-minute mark.
 
With the quarter and semi-finals now behind them, the Mustangs prepare to return to the West Division Finals for the first time since 2012 when they defeated the Windsor Lancers in three games. Only one member of the current team, Shaun Furlong, was on the roster for that series, and seeing the current team members advance further in the playoffs than the have before was something Singer reflected on following the game.
 
"Great feeling," said Singer when asked how it felt to have his players advance to the division finals for the first time. "The season's ended at Thompson Arena the last few years here. It's certainly nice to get back to this stage where you're playing to go to the nationals. Not that you need extra motivation, but it's certainly nice to have."
 
"We're going to take a day off here, reassess, and have a look at Guelph. The one thing we've done all year is work hard. Despite the result we've worked hard all year, and I'm sure we're going to bring that effort this week to the Guelph series."
 
Game One of the OUA West Division Finals is set for Thursday, March 3 at Thompson Arena. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m., and the game will be shown live on OUA.tv.

Source: Western Mustangs