Mustangs topple Warriors to remain undefeated

On Sunday, October 7 the Mustangs women’s hockey team took to the ice for the second time in as many days, shutting out the Waterloo Warriors 3–0 at Thompson Arena.

The Mustangs faced off against the Warriors after defeating the reigning Ontario University Athletics champions—the Laurier Golden Hawks—by a score of 7–2 on Saturday. This was the first time the Mustangs had ever beaten Laurier, and this was also the first time Laurier lost their season opener in 18 years.

The Mustangs came out playing hard early in the first period, forcing Waterloo to play in their zone and drawing an early penalty. However, they were unable to take advantage of this opportunity. The Mustangs outshot Waterloo 13–11 in the period, and with less than five minutes left in the first, one of the officials took a puck to the face, which resulted in a stoppage of play. When play resumed, Western came out playing hard and with 15 seconds left in the period Cassidy Gosling scored the first goal of the game for the Mustangs.

The second period started with a lot of back and forth play, and after an early Waterloo penalty, Stacey Scott was able net another goal for the Mustangs with under nine minutes left in the period. Intermission came with the score at 2–0 for the Mustangs.

“Western is a strong team, so we have to make sure we come prepared every game. The effort was there but we have to work on our puck handling,” Jenni Bauer, Warriors head coach, said.

The Mustangs came out of the gate in the third, putting a lot of pressure on the Warriors, drawing a penalty and scoring on the power play courtesy of team captain Carly Rolph. Some of the Mustangs’ penalties gave Waterloo hope, but Mustangs netminder Kelly Campbell shut the door to complete the shutout with the final score at 3–0 favouring the Western women.

“We played a very strong defensive game. We got a lot of penalties and we took ourselves out of our flow, but five on five I thought we controlled the game,” Chris Higgins, Mustangs head coach, said.

He went on to remark about the spectacular play of Campbell.

“She gives us so much confidence. We know if we make a mistake, she is going to back us up, and nothing got past her today,” he said.

However, Campbell was very modest about her incredible play against the Warriors.

“I didn’t have to do as much today as I did yesterday. I had great defence in front of me and they made it easy for me,” Campbell said. “They played great, they got in there and their breakouts were awesome.”

The Western women will look to stay undefeated as they look to play the Brock Badgers and Guelph Gryphons on Saturday and Sunday at Thompson Arena.