Mustangs squad to battle McGill for OUA supremacy Mar 11, 09 Ice Hockey (M)

By Dan Levine

UNIVERSITY HOCKEY (OUA Queen’s Cup Preview): Young Mustangs squad to battle McGill for OUA supremacy

By Dan Levine

LONDON, Ont. – The No. 6-ranked Western Mustangs will host the McGill Redmen in the OUA Queen’s Cup league championship game on Mar. 14 at 7:30 p.m. at Thompson Arena in London.

The Mustangs will look to continue their playoff success, after sweeping the Laurier Golden Hawks in the OUA West Final. The Redmen will look to win their second straight Queen’s Cup after beating the Brock Badgers 4-1 in last year’s contest. McGill swept the No. 5 Trois Rivières Patriotes in their OUA East Final matchup.

Both teams are 6-1 in the playoffs, and both have already guaranteed themselves a trip to the national championship in Thunder Bay, Ont. This game will affect each team’s seed in the tournament, and will provide the winner with a boost of confidence, and a sense of pride.

“There aren’t many opportunities in an athlete’s career when they get to play a game with the trophy in the building,” said Western’s head coach Clarke Singer.

“We're very excited about the nationals, but the focus from here until Saturday is on winning the Queen’s Cup.”

This is the first meeting between the teams this season, and Singer said the Mustangs have some work to do, as they prepare for an unfamiliar opponent.

“To be honest, we don’t know a lot about them right now,” said Singer. “We’ll try to do some homework in the next few days to get an idea of how they play.”

But Singer says his squad needs to put the focus squarely on themselves.

“They have a great team, but we need to focus on playing well,” said Singer. “We have to take care of our own business.”

For the Mustangs, a Queen’s Cup victory would cap an incredible season in the OUA. The young squad spent the majority of the regular season trailing Lakehead, Laurier and Waterloo in the standings, but Western will now play for the Ontario championship and for the national title for the first time since 2004-05.

“It always takes young players a while to get adjusted to this level of hockey,” said Singer. We knew we'd get better, and we're really happy with how hard the players have worked.”

This game is a matchup between two of hockey’s most historic teams. Western first competed in 1907, before making its intercollegiate debut in 1923. The Redmen are the world’s oldest hockey team, and have now played in 132 seasons. Each storied program would love to add another championship to its resume.

The Mustangs have been led by a mix of rookies and veteran leaders.

In the regular season, veteran Sal Peralta (Leamington, Ont.) and rookie Kevin Baker (Georgetown, Ont.) each finished with 28 points for, while Aaron Snow (Windsor, Ont.) led the Mustangs with 14 goals. Ryan Martinelli (London, Ont.) finished tied for second in OUA defencemen scoring with 23 points.

In the post-season, Snow and Keaton Turkiewicz (Brantford, Ont.) have led the way offensively, with 9 and 8 points, respectively. Yashar Farmanara (West Vancouver, B.C.) has 7 points in the playoffs, including two huge goals against Laurier.

“We have a deep, balanced attack,” said Singer. “Other teams have shortened their benches, and we’ve been able to keep rolling out lines.”

McGill is led by rookie Alexandre Picard-Hooper (Boucherville, Que.) and veteran forward Sam Bloom (Toronto, Ont.). Picard-Hooper led all OUA rookies in scoring, and finished 9th overall with 36 points. Bloom notched 34 points, and recorded the OUA’s longest point streak during a 15-game stretch from October to January. Bloom also finished third in the OUA with a +7 rating.

Picard-Hooper has filled up the score sheet during the playoffs, recording 11 points in seven games, while Marko Kovacevic (Belgrade, Serbia) is second with two goals and six assists.

In goal, Western will turn to Brad Topping (Strathroy, Ont.), while McGill will counter with rookie Kevin Desfosses (Beauport, Que.). Both netminders have started every game of the playoffs, and both have stellar post-season save percentages above .930.

“(Desfosses) has done a great job,” said Singer.

The goalies will need to be sharp early, as the first period will likely be a major factor in deciding the outcome of this game. Incredibly, both Western and McGill are undefeated when leading after the opening frame. Conversely, the teams are a combined 5-11-1 when trailing after the first period.

Tickets

Tickets are $12 for adults and $8 for youths and seniors. Students wearing purple can gain admission for $5, and groups are encouraged to call 519-661-4077.

Broadcast

Fans can also see the game live via www.westernmustangs.ca. No need to register, just click on live game-day video button on right hand side of page. At game time, a PLAY button will become available.

The game will also be tape delayed on Rogers cable 13, Sunday, Mar. 15 at 2 p.m.

SOURCE:

Andy Watson
Sports Information and Media Relations Coordinator
The University of Western Ontario
Room 3170 F, Thames Hall
London, ON N6A 3K7
C: 519-709-1858
W: 519-661-3089
awatso47@uwo.ca
www.westernmustangs.ca

-----------------

UNIVERSITY HOCKEY
COLUMN: Mustangs, Redmen follow similar paths to Ontario final
Morris Dalla Costa
The London Free Press
March 12, 2009

The McGill Redmen and Western Mustangs have found their way to the Ontario university men's hockey championship game Saturday in London.

They road they've taken to get to Thompson arena is surprisingly similar.

The Redmen, defending Queen's Cup champions, lost nine players to graduation and began the season with five losses in succession.

The Mustangs were also forced by graduation to go with a young lineup. They began the season 3-4.

If you had asked at that time who would be playing for the Ontario championship, Western and McGill might have been well down the list.

"We did have a rough start and the numbers don't lie," said Mustang blue-liner Chris Petrow. "The way the guys have jelled, though, it really isn't surprising we've come this far. This is a super tightly knit group of guys, the tightest we've had in four years.

"Everyone knows their role. They've accepted their role. They are playing the best hockey they can. It takes all kinds to make a team. It takes 20 players every night to win and that's what we've had."

The similarity in the seasons of the two teams hasn't gone unnoticed by Mustangs coach Clarke Singer.

"That's one of the things we've talked about and that's the very similar path we've taken this year. They didn't have a great start, they had a lot of graduating guys from their Queen's Cup team of last year. Like us, they kept getting better. They added a goaltender (Kevin Desfosses) at Christmas and he's had a great impact on their team since then and they haven't lost many games.

"If you look at their games through the year, they hardly ever allow three goals."

Desfosses, a former Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and International Hockey League goalie, has come in and stabilized the back end, just as the Mustangs' defencemen have progressed to stabilize their back end.

Petrow is reaping some of the benefits of that good defensive work. He was named yesterday a West first-team all-star. Teammate Sal Peralta was named the West's most gentlemanly player as well as a second team all-star along with Mustang blue-liner Ryan Martinelli. Centre Kevin Baker made the West all-rookie team.

"We're playing with a lot more confidence in a lot of ways but it's not just the defensive unit," Petrow said. "It's defensive responsibility as a whole, being accountable, keeping the third man high, backchecking and being responsible to our system. If you don't play the system, holes open up."

Singer said it's a team that reminds him of Laurier, very good defensively, quick and skilled. The Redmen don't score a lot of goals but don't give up many either.

Both teams have already made it to the national championship tournament in Thunder Bay at the end of the month, but this is still a significant game.

Petrow isn't looking ahead.

"It's still a huge game," he said. "There's a lot of prestige involved in the game and it's still an Ontario championship. You got to put nationals out of your mind for the next four or five days. Winning a championship would be a nice way to get things going."

Singer wants to avoid any chance that his team might be looking ahead and he's using history to help his club do that.

"We've done some research. This will be the 98th time the Queen's Cup has been awarded. It's one of the oldest trophies in the world. The 97 times previous, Western has won it two times.

"I said to the guys, 'A lot of you guys have played hockey for a long time, there's not many days when you come to the rink and there's a trophy waiting there to be awarded at the end of the day.' We're going to the nationals and the trophy is not coming in the building the first two days. The guys are really looking forward to competing for a championship (on Saturday)."

Morris Dalla Costa is a Free Press sports columnist.

E-MAIL: Morris Dalla Costa