The No. 7 Windsor Lancers men's hockey team had a successful weekend at home taking on the Western Mustangs, their rivals from east of the 401, at the Capri Pizzeria Recreation Complex.
However, the Mustangs made the Lancers have to work for it though despite the blue and gold winning 5-2 on Friday night but then following up in the rematch the next day 4-3 in OT on Saturday night. The Lancers are now currently riding an impressive 9-game winning streak and improved to an overall season record of 9-1 heading into next weekend.
Matt Dorsey had a great weekend for the Lancers picking up four goals between the two matches including the overtime winner on Saturday night in front of the home crowd. Grant Spence and Nathan Torchia were also instrumental in the Lancers success in this weekend's contests.
FRIDAY
The Lancers opened the scoring within the first twenty minutes of play with goal coming off the stick of Dorsey at 14:59 in the first to put the home team up 1-0. Less than two minutes later at 16:54, Mason Kohn scored a stellar goal which pushed the Lancer lead to two over the visiting Mustangs. The Lancers closed out the first period with a 2-0 thanks to the goaltending of Torchia who ensured none of the 7 Western shots got past him before heading off into the dressing room.
In the second period, Western obviously felt a need to respond early in the frame when Sean Montgomery notched in his sixth of the season to spoil the potential for a Lancer shutout. With Western cutting the lead in half the Lancers then felt urgency to quickly respond in which Spence put in the back of the net his third of the season and second point of the game to put the blue and gold up 3-1.
Meanwhile the Mustangs battled back within two minutes after the third Windsor goal to stay on the Lancers heels with Shane Bulitka's first goal of the season restoring the lone one goal lead for the Lancers and giving the Mustangs some much needed hope at 3-2 Windsor.
However, hope was all they could wish for down the stretch as the determined Lancers stuck to the script and managed to not be fazed on a Western power-play with Anthony Stefano scoring a gorgeous shorthanded marker to again put the Lancers up two goals in this contest.
With a high scoring second period behind both squads, the third period again showcased strong goaltending from both sides throughout as both Torchia and Western goalie Dylan Myskiw flashed the leather for the fans. Although Windsor felt the need for one more insurance goal which came off the stick of Keegan McMullen who picked up his first of the season unassisted into the empty net and put the cherry on top for the Lancers at 19:31 of the third period capping off the night for the Western Mustangs.
SATURDAY
For a second consecutive night, Dorsey opened the scoring for the Lancers at 8:41 of the first period netting his third goal of the season from Hunter Holmes to put the blue and gold up 1-0. Western then proceeded to quickly respond at 9:05 with a goal from Montgomery who picked up his second goal of the weekend for the Mustangs to tie the game up at 1-1. The Mustangs then held the momentum throughout the period after Drew Wawrow picked up his first of the season at 17:29 to give the purple and white the lead heading into the first intermission up 2-1.
In the second period neither team would score until the midway mark when Stefano managed to score on the powerplay to boost the Lancers confidence and equalize the game at 2-2. Less than a minute later Western's Franco Sproviero would score an unassisted marker to take back the Mustang lead at 3-2. The scoring would not finish there however as Will Ennis scored his second goal of the season to round out the period with the game knotted up 3-3.
No scoring happened in the third period despite both goaltenders putting on a show with phenomenal performances in turning pucks away for their respective teams to keep their sides in it throughout.
After 60 minutes this game needed overtime and a hero. Windsor got that OT hero at 3:37 into the extra frame when Dorsey capped off his spectacular weekend with an unassisted goal and second of the night which allowed the Lancers to edge out the Mustangs 4-3 to push their current win streak to 9 atop the OUA West standings.
UP NEXT
The Lancers will now rest up until next weekend when they head to Toronto to face off against the York Lions for a road trip doubleheader in The Six. Gametime for Friday night's match up is scheduled for 7:15pm while Saturday's tilt is expected for 4:15pm puck drop and the action for both games can be streamed live on OUA TV.
