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Analysis: Mustangs fall in Queen’s Cup

Corey Stanford/Gazette

There were plenty of indications Saturday afternoon that things just weren’t going to go the Western Mustangs’ way.

A bad bounce here, the loss of a skate edge there. It seemed like fate was stacked against the official visiting team playing in its own arena.

But none were as telling as the moment in the third period when — with 2:17 remaining and McGill sniper Francis Verreault-Paul in the penalty box — Mustangs head coach Clarke Singer pulled his goalie to give his team a two-man advantage in a last ditch effort to climb back into the game.

It was as safe a bet as Singer could make with the faceoff deep in the Redmen zone and his team down three, watching its hopes of an Ontario championship crumble before their eyes.

But off the faceoff McGill centreman Maxime Langelier-Parent stabbed at the puck as it fell from the linesman’s hand, batting it forward, past the Mustangs defenders and all the way down the ice where it slid agonizingly slowly into the Mustangs’ gaping net.

Now that’s crushing.

“I thought we had a couple bad breaks,” Singer said after the game, an understatement if there ever was one. “Turkiewicz loses an edge clearing the puck and they score. Greenside just falls down on the fourth goal. Just bad breaks, right?”

Call it excuses from the head coach whose team just lost 6-2, but the 100^th playing of the Queen’s Cup at Thompson Arena Saturday didn’t look as lopsided as the score sheet read by the end of the contest.

Mustangs goaltender Anthony Grieco only lasted 40 minutes Saturday but he hardly had a chance on any of the five goals he allowed.

“It’s a hockey game. Bounces go here and bounces go there, and unfortunately today the bounces didn’t go our way,” Mustangs defenceman Jason Swit, who scored his team’s first goal on a long point shot in the second period, said.

But as far as things the Mustangs could control went, there was definite room for improvement. The Mustangs took five minor penalties in the span of 10 minutes in the second period, limiting any chance they had of clawing back into the game in the middle frame.

By the third, McGill could simply sit back in their neutral zone and let the Mustangs come to them as they held Western to just six shots in the third period and killed off two separate penalties with ease.

“We knew going in that they had a lot of offensive talent,” Swit said. “They’re a really good team. We gave it our all but they just had more.”

The Mustangs were actually extremely efficient in containing the high-powered Redmen tandem of Verreault-Paul and Alex Picard-Hooper, who were both held goalless until midway through the second when Picard-Hooper slid an easy goal into a wide-open net.

The duo combined for 100 points in the regular season — even though Verreault-Paul missed 9 of the Redmen’s 28 games — and both finished in the top four in OUA scoring. But Saturday the pair was relatively silent — Picard-Hooper also added an assist — which, as far as silver linings go, is a nice one to have.

“I don’t think it was a four goal difference between us and them,” Singer said. “There’s a lot of work to be done. But can we play a lot better? I think we can.”

Of course, the fact remains that McGill had all the goals they would need halfway through the first period as they consistently made the Mustangs pay for giveaways in their own zone.

Singer said earlier in the week that the way McGill could hurt his team would be off turnovers and odd-man rushes in transition. Unfortunately for the 12-year Mustangs coach, it was a prophecy that manifested itself on Saturday.

The Redmen capitalized on nearly every Mustangs turnover, scoring goals that you couldn’t describe as overly masterful — but that count just the same.

“Credit to McGill, good hockey teams make things go their way and they did,” Singer said.

Of course, the next stop for both these teams is the national championship in Fredericton in two weeks time. And by the final whistle on Saturday it was clear why McGill is one of the early favourites heading into the tournament.

“[McGill is] a real good team. They’re number two in Canada for a reason,” Singer said. “They’re the best team we’ve played this year, that’s for sure.”

But despite that, the best may be yet to come as the team spends the next week and a half getting ready for stiff competition at Nationals.

Luckily for these Mustangs, in the CIS redemption is always hanging right around the corner. And when they travel east on March 24 they could get another shot at the Redmen.

It’s one Swit and the rest of the Mustangs are looking forward to.

“We’re going to have to improve before we play them again but at nationals we’ll be a lot stronger,” Swit said. “They’re a good team but we’re just as good as them.”

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