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Tyler Peters’ hat trick leads the way to victory

November 30, 2011
By Usman Zahid

On Friday the Western Mustangs men’s hockey team beat the University of Ontario Institute of Technology Ridgebacks by a score of 5-2 at Thompson Arena.

The Mustangs improve to 10-1-2 on the season on the strength of a four goal performance by forward Tyler Peters. The Mustangs rode their strong offensive performance, while the Ridgebacks struggled to convert their scoring chances.

“Well, we came out and played like we needed to play, our downfall was not being able to score. One more save or goal would have changed the outcome, however, we were not able to get it done,” Marlin Muylaert, Ridgebacks coach, said.

The Mustangs came out of the gate flying as they forced UOIT to play in their own zone for much of the first period. Dominating the tempo, the Mustangs were able to open the scoring at the 10:27 mark with a big goal by Peters. Peters was able to put another one past the Ridgebacks goalie later in the period giving the Mustangs a lead of 2-0 as they headed into the intermission.

The Mustangs outshot the Ridgebacks handily by a margin of 13-6 in the first period. Though the disparity was large in the first, the second period was contested more evenly.

“This was a close game and you always have to play very hard and very tough. This was a pretty tight game, they struggled to put the puck in the net but the game was still very close,” Clarke Singer, Mustangs head coach, said.

The second period started with four-on-four play as both teams had a player in the penalty box. Both teams brought a lot of energy in the second and the score was indicative of the more evenly matched period.

The Ridgebacks were able to get on the scoreboard at 8:30 with a goal on the power play, however the Mustangs answered right back with a goal by Peters exactly a minute later completing his hat-trick and bringing the lead back up to two goals.

The third period was continued the mostly back and forth play from the second period. Included in the back and forth play was a physical aspect that the game had been missing from the first two periods.

With a two goal lead, the Mustangs were looking to end all hopes of a comeback as Keaton Turkiewicz put another one on the board giving the Mustangs their fourth goal of the game.

UOIT called a timeout after the goal, and came out energized. They were able to pot their second goal of the game with 10:59 remaining but that would be it.

During the timeout coach Muylaert told his team,“not to get discouraged and to play with some pride.”

The late surge by UOIT was answered by Peters as he got his fourth goal of the game on the empty net putting the final score at 5-2. The final period shots were 13-12 favouring the Mustangs.

“We played well for a full 60 minutes and worked hard on defence,” Jason Furlong, Mustangs assistant captain, said. “We stuck to our game plan and got pucks deep.”

The Western Mustangs continued their strong play on Saturday against the Brock Badgers at Thompson Arena.

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