Photo Courtesy: Nav Mohan - 94.9 Radio Western

GOJHL

The London Nationals will be in action tonight in their second game in as many nights to kick off 2019. Last night, the Nats fell 7-3 to the Chatham Maroons at the Western Fair Sports Centre despite three assists from Christian Polillo. Tonight, the Nats will be in Sarnia to battle with the Legionnaires. London took the teams’ last meeting 4-0 on December 12th, which was also Juuka Schotter’s first career GOJHL shutout. The Nationals will then end their three game weekend set against the Strathroy Rockets on Saturday evening. London has a healthy lead in the GOJHL standings, nine points up on second-place Chatham.

The St. Thomas Stars will be in Leamington tonight to take on the Flyers.  This will be the Stars’ first game since December 23rd, which was a 2-2 tie against St. Mary’s. The Stars haven’t won a game since November 30th where they beat Sarnia 7-6. Since then, St. Thomas has gone 0-4-2-0 in six games. They are hoping that the turn of the year will mean a new beginning, as they will have another game against the Strathroy Rockets tomorrow night when they host their first home game of 2019.

The Komoka Kings will have a weekend set first taking on the St. Mary’s Lincolns at home on Saturday night. The Kings are 3-1 so far this season against the Lincolns, but lost their last game 4-1 on December 21st. On Sunday, the Kings will be taking on the Chatham Maroons to round out their weekend schedule.  

Western Mustangs

Hockey

The Western Mustangs women’s hockey team will resume their season with a pair of home games this weekend. On Saturday, they will host the Ryerson Rams at Thompson Arena. This is the second meeting this season between the Rams and Mustangs, with Western winning their first game 4-0 in Toronto back in November. On Sunday, Western will host another Toronto opponent in the Varsity Blues. Western also won its first meeting against U of T in the fall 5-3 in Toronto. The Mustangs are looking to bounce back from a tough overtime loss against York in the final game of 2018. April Clark leads the OUA in both goals (11) and points (17), with Carmen Lasis sporting the fifth-best GAA and save percentage. The Mustangs, however, find themselves in fifth place albeit a single point out of first in an airtight OUA. Puck drop for both Saturday’s and Sunday’s game will be at 2:30pm from Thompson Arena.

The men’s hockey team is hoping to continue its hot play that it had towards the end of the 2018 schedule, as they head into the New Year on a five-game winning streak. Their first opponent of 2019 will be the Guelph Gryphons, who sit eighth in the West but have won three of their last four games. Guelph will be without their starting goaltender Evan Cormier, who recently signed  a professional contract with the Binghamton Devils of the American Hockey League, meaning that Andrew Masters (2.72 GAA, .915 SV%) will take a bulk of the starts for the remainder of the season. Western’s goaltender, Luke Peresinni, is having a phenomenal year, ranking second in the OUA with a 2.00 GAA and third in the league with a .932 save percentage. The Mustangs have been led by Anthony Stefano who has 7 goals and 8 assists to lead the team’s scoring race. Western will play another home game the following evening against the Toronto Varsity Blues. The Mustangs’ current five-game winning streak started with a win over U of T on November 16th 6-4. Puck drop for both games will be at 7pm from Thompson Arena.

Basketball

The Mustangs basketball teams will host their first games of 2019 on Saturday afternoon when they take on the Brock Badgers. The women’s team is hoping that the break gave some time for valuable players to nurse some injuries, as Julia Curran and Maddy Horst have both missed extended time since the start of the season. Laura Graham is the purple & white’s leading scorer averaging about 14 points a game as the only healthy senior on the team. Brock’s women’s team is led by Melissa Tattis who is averaging over 18 points a game on nearly 37% shooting from the field. The Badgers are also the third-highest offensive rebounding team in the OUA averaging almost 15 second-chance possessions a game (Western is 16th at 8.1 per game).

The men’s team is looking to continue some good play against the most equal opponent they’ve seen them. Both the Badgers and the Mustangs men’s teams are 7-4, with Brock taking second spot in the West based on point differential. They are led by Johneil Simpson who averages over 20 points per game, and Cassidy Ryan who averages over 15. The Badgers have scored the most points in the OUA this season, but rank sixth with 83.9  points per game. The Mustangs M.O is their defence, nabbing over 11 steals per game, led by the two leading-stealers in the OUA: Nik Farkic and Eriq Jenkins. Omar Shiddo is leading the offence in his junior year averaging 19.5 points a game on 32% shooting from the field.

Tipoff for the women’s game will be at 1pm from Alumni Hall, with the men following at 3.