Western shuts out Waterloo to book spot in McCaw Cup semifinals

WATERLOO, Ont. – Western booked a spot in the OUA Semi-Finals on Saturday, completing a sweep of the Waterloo Warriors with a convincing 4-0 victory on the road.
 
Goaltender Kelly Campbell made 37 saves for the shutout, marking back-to-back shutouts to start the playoffs for the fifth-year netminder, and four different players chipped in with goals to back up her solid effort.
 
Defender Anthea Lasis opened the scoring for the Mustangs just under twelve minutes into the first period. Nicole French did a good job to retrieve the puck behind the Warrior net, coming around in front to find Lasis at the point with a crisp cross seam pass. Lasis walked in and wristed a shot past Waterloo goaltender Rebecca Bouwhuis to give the Mustangs a 1-0 lead.
 
The Mustangs doubled their lead a minute later thanks to a nice tip from Marlowe Pecora. Western won a clean offensive draw back to defenceman Brianna Iazzolino, who was quickly pressured by two Waterloo forwards. Iazzolino swiftly snapped a shot towards goal through the traffic. Pecora was able to pick the puck out of mid-air and into the net to make the score 2-0 Mustangs.
 
Campbell made one her finest saves of the game as the first period was coming to a close. A nice seam-pass by a Waterloo defender caught the Mustangs transition defense flatfooted and gave forward Marissa Redmond a breakaway opportunity. Redmond came down on Campbell with great speed and fired a snap shot from just inside the slot. Campbell, ever the calm presence in net for the Mustangs, coolly edged her shoulder out to deny the Warriors a goal.
 
The score would remain 2-0 at the end of the first. The shots were 9-4 in favour of the Mustangs in the first period.
 
Western's offense picked up right away in the second period and thirteen seconds into the middle frame Amanda Pereira made it 3-0 for the Mustangs.  The assist on the goal went to Evra Levesque. With their season on the line, Waterloo poured it on after going down 3-0. They fired 22 shots at Campbell in the second period but none of them found the back of the net.
 
Roles were reversed in the third for the Mustangs' fourth goal of the game, as this time Pereira had the helper for Levesque's second goal of the playoffs. The Warriors totaled another 11 shots in the frame but were unable to find any way to beat the reigning OUA Playoff MVP in Campbell.
 
With the win, the Mustangs move on to the OUA Semi-Final to face a yet-to-be-determined opponent.

Source: Western Mustangs