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Golden Hawks down ‘Stangs in close contest

November 24, 2011
By Renee Tamming

Even a red-hot Keaton Turkiewicz couldn’t help the Mustangs men’s hockey team overcome the struggling Laurier Golden Hawks as they suffered a 5-4 loss on Saturday.

Coming in with a three-game winning streak—including one against the Golden Hawks last Saturday—the Mustangs may have underestimated their opponents. The Golden Hawks knew they were going to be up against something big, so they went into the game ready to give their best shot.

“Western’s a very talented and complete hockey club and they work hard and skate fast.  We wanted to try to keep the puck in the opposition zone and create a forecheck and keep the puck out of our zone. We went in with the plan of winning,” Greg Puhalski, Laurier head coach, said.

Putting that plan into action, Puhalski got the win he was looking for. The Golden Hawks started out with a strong offensive attack, netting three power play goals for a 5-1 lead at the end of the second period. The Mustangs ran out of time for a counter-offensive push in the third despite Turkiewicz’s hat trick. Falling just short of the tie, it was truly a disappointing loss.

Turkiewicz has been a solid player for the Mustangs over the past three years, and is currently sixth in Ontario University Athletics standings for top scorers. With 21 points this early in the season, he is well on his way to breaking his personal best of 43 points from the 2009-10 season. However, going into Laurier’s Sun Life Financial Arena, he knew it wasn’t going to be an easy game.

“Although we handled them the previous Saturday, we knew that it was not going to be like that again, especially going into their barn,” Turkiewicz said.

The Mustangs’ inability to find the back of the net was a major weakness early on in Saturday’s game, as Laurier’s starting netminder Ryan Daniels stopped all but four of the Mustangs’ 59 shots.

“Their goalie played solid, as he always does against us. We knew we needed to get as many shots as possible on him, which we definitely did,” Turkiewicz said of Daniels.

It wasn’t just the Mustangs who were amazed by Daniels’ rock-solid play. Coach Puhalski thought that Western definitely outplayed them, and that Daniels was the answer to their lack of defence.

“Ryan Daniels and our power play were two keys for the game and we really capitalized on our chances. It was not a game that we deserved to win,” Puhalski said.

Mustangs starting goalie Alain Valiquette was pulled halfway through the second after letting in four goals on only 14 shots, being replaced by Josh Unice. However, goaltending was not their only problem.

“I still feel that we need to take care of our defensive end early in the game and help out our goalie,” Turkiewicz said, unhappy with his team’s failure to protect their half of the ice.

Zach Harnden netted the Mustangs’ first goal of the game. Tyler Stothers had two goals while Frank Riddle, Dustin Scott and Mitchell Good each had one for the Golden Hawks.

The second-place Mustangs will play next on Friday, November 25 at Thompson Arena against the ninth-place University of Ontario Institue of Technology Ridgebacks. The Mustangs won their last meeting at UOIT 5-3 and they hope to see more of the same in Friday’s game on their home ice.

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