January 14, 2016

Delmas leads Mustangs to Frosty Mug victory in front of record crowd

GUELPH, Ont. – The defending OUA champions put on a show at the Sleeman Centre Thursday night but Peter Delmas managed to steal it, turning aside 32 shots to lead Western over the Gryphons 3-2 in the seventh annual Frosty Mug game.

Guelph

Western

Final

Guelph

Western

GUELPH, Ont. – The defending OUA champions put on a show at the Sleeman Centre Thursday night but Peter Delmas managed to steal it, turning aside 32 shots to lead Western over the Gryphons 3-2 in the seventh annual Frosty Mug game.

The Sleeman Centre is usually home to the OHL's Guelph Storm but on Thursday it was the Mustangs and the Gryphons facing off at the rink. With second place on the line, Guelph played Western hard all night but just couldn't come away with the win.

"Our best game back from the break and we needed it in here tonight," said Mustangs head coach Clarke Singer. "Guelph's the defending OUA champions and they gave us everything they had. They're a great hockey team and [Andrew] D'Agostini does a great job in net for them so it was nice to get the win and nice to get some of those new additions on the scoreboard."

Guelph fans turned out in a big way for the popular event, shattering previous attendance records with a total of 4,374 people coming through the turnstiles. Much to the dismay to the Gryphons faithful, Robert Polesello and Stephen Sanza rifled home their first goals in purple and white to lift the Mustangs over their division rivals. The win propels Western into sole possession of second place in the OUA West ahead of the Gryphons.

"I know the guys even during the week were excited about coming down here and playing in this type of atmosphere," said Singer. "I think they heard from some other teams about the crowds that they have down here for this event and I think they'd much rather play in front of 3,000 hostile fans than even 750 at home.

"It was a really, really exciting game—great atmosphere for them and I think we gave the crowd great entertainment."

Play was heated from the very beginning, with Delmas and Guelph's Rob De Fulviis earning coincidentally minors less than a minute into the game. The Gryphons fed off the energy of their sea of red, forcing turnovers and keeping the pressure on for the better part of the frame.

"I just tried to focus on my game and just not get too emotional," said Delmas when asked about the heated play early. "Sometime [those things] happen and it's over as soon as the puck drops and you just try and forget about it."

But it would be Western that would get the scoring started on the power play, as Polesello fired the puck over Andrew D'Agostini's glove and in to silence the crowd. The goal seemed to get the Mustangs juices going, and the period finished with the shot clock at 12-11 Western.

Still, it was Delmas who faced the heaviest pressure in the frame. He would outdo himself in the second period, making an incredible pad save six minutes in before adding a flashy glove save minutes later. Robert De Fulviis finally solved Delmas just minutes later, but Western's goalie bounced back with another excellent glove save with nine seconds left in the frame.

"Felt kind of like an old junior game that we used to play or like one of the games before you come into the CIS," said Delmas. "It was good. We knew they were going to be really emotionally invested in the game because it's like playing in front of your whole school so just tried to void all of that stuff."

D'Agostini also impressed in front of his home crowd, finishing with 31 saves to keep his team in the game despite facing little sustained pressure. But luck didn't go his way at key points, as the first and last Western goals glanced off his glove and in and another bounced off his chest before going in off of Shaun Furlong's leg.

Furlong's goal came just over two minutes into the final frame while Sanza netted his first as a Mustang with just under seven minutes left. Dylan Gilbert had Guelph's only goal in the third, which reinvigorated the crowd before Sanza responded under two minutes later.

Much of Guelph's pressure on the night came thanks to poorly timed Western infractions, although the Mustangs didn't end up paying on the penalty kill. The Mustangs killed off all five of Guelph's power plays and even added a shorthanded marker off the stick of Sanza.

The Gryphons took the same amount of penalties but they ended up with perhaps the most costly infraction of the night, as Kyle Neuber took a checking from behind penalty late in the game to put his team down a man. Guelph pressured late after Western missed an open net, but in the end they couldn't get the puck past Delmas.

Noah Schwartz, Alex Micallef, Spenser Cobbold, and Furlong all finished with assists for the Mustangs. Schwartz also impressed on defence, blocking a number of shots and making a number of solid plays on the penalty kill to help out his goalie.

NOTES
The Frosty Mug game has been played for seven years as part of Guelph's Winter Homecoming Celebrations. Thursday night's attendance was the highest yet… Polesello's goal was his first point as a Mustang while Sanza had already picked up an assist before firing home his first goal last week. Sanza joined Western in January and Polesello sat out the first part of the season with an injury… Delmas' save percentage is over .900 for the first time in a while this season, and it was a long time coming. The soft-spoken backstop has been on fire through his last few starts as Western's goaltending competition heats up…