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Penalty woes sink Mustangs in vital game

February 8, 2012
By Renee Tamming

Only four spots and three points separated the seventh place Western Mustangs and the third place Toronto Varsity Blues going into their game on Sunday. However, due to weak penalty kills and offensive plays, the Mustangs gave up two points to the Blues in a 3-1 loss.

The Blues started out strong in the first period, netting the first goal of the game on a power play only two minutes in.  The Mustangs had a chance to tie it up later in the first, with Madison Turk getting one through the five hole of Blues goalie Krista Funke.  Unfortunately, as the puck trickled through and Katie Dillon tried to tap it in, she was blocked by a Toronto defender, and the puck went wide of the net.

Funke received the second star of the night, and she definitely deserved it.  Stopping 31 out of 32 shots, her performance was what kept the Varsity Blues in the game.

“She made key saves, controlled the puck and was a huge part of our win,” Vicky Sunohara, Varsity Blues coach, said. As Mustangs head coach Chris Higgins put it, “She stole the game for Toronto.”

Late in the second period, Western’s Lindsay Gidomski was called on a blatant tripping penalty, putting the Blues on the power play.  This allowed them to score the second goal of the game, causing Western to doubt their special teams.

“They cost us—all year our [penalty kill] has been awesome.  First time all year we’ve given up key goals at bad times,” Higgins stated, clearly unimpressed with his team.

Toronto’s Amanda Ricker found her way past Western’s goaltender Olivia Ross after a two-on-one early in the third, putting the Blues up 3-0, causing dismay on the Mustangs bench.

“It was still in our reach, but we couldn’t get anything going […] We really needed to pick it up,” Casey Rosen, Mustangs forward, said.

Rosen had a great shot at Funke halfway through the third, when she wrapped around the post, firing the puck over Funke’s shoulder. The puck ended up hitting the bar at the back and bouncing out of the net.  The referees paused the gameplay to discuss whether or not the puck went in, finally declaring it a good goal.

“I was a little mad. We needed that goal to give us momentum, and it did. It gave us that push,” Rosen said, admitting she was worried that the referees would call it off.

Sunday’s goal makes it eight this season for Rosen, with a total of thirteen points.  Rosen is a Mustangs’ rookie, who played for Leaside MAA before this year, as well as for her high school, Tanenbaum CHAT. Now down 3-1, and on a power play, the Mustangs pulled Ross for an extra two attackers.   However, the Varsity Blues were able to kill the penalty along with Western’s chances of victory—keeping the score at 3-1 to end the game.

“I think we had a strong game.  I thought we outplayed them.  Everyone picked it up at the end and I think we had a great game and everyone was contributing, but we couldn’t finish,” Rosen said, proud of her team’s surge of energy at the end of the game.

With Brock’s win over York, Western drops to eighth place in the Ontario University Athletics standings, tied in points with Waterloo. Their next game will be at Thomspon Arena against the Windsor Lancers on February 12. This game will surely be one to tune in to, as the Mustangs will have to fight to stay alive in the race to the playoffs.

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