After the women’s team got Western’s 2012-13 hockey season started last Sunday the men saw their first action of the year on Friday night against the Concordia Stingers at Thompson Arena. 

It was the first chance for the Mustangs faithful to see Patrick Powers behind the bench as the team’s interim head coach as longtime head coach Clarke Singer taking a sabbatical this season. 

Powers certainly had his charges ready to go early as the team scored three times in the opening four minutes to jump out to an early lead. Chris Rocca, Julian Comadorme, and Matt Clarke all found the net behind Concordia netminder Nick Champion. Both teams went scoreless for the remainder of the opening frame, despite play happening at a fairly brisk pace with few stoppages.

Despite falling behind in the opening minutes the Stingers kept fighting, firing back with two quick goals of their own in the second from Alex Zafaris and Alexandre Monahan to close the gap to one. The Mustangs would regain the momentum just over a minute later as Cimadamore was left wide-open in the slot and fired a wrist shot along the ice past Champion to make it 4-2 for Western.

Neither team was able to gain the advantage for long in the third period until midway through the frame as George Lovatsis had multiple whacks at the puck in front of the Western net before finally putting one home to pull the Stingers within one. 

That was as close as things got, as the Mustangs held Concordia scoreless for the remaining nine minutes to close things out with a 4-3 victory for Powers in his debut as interim head coach.

There’s not much time to rest for the Mustangs as they’re back in action Saturday night against the McGill Redmen in a rematch of last year’s CIS University Cup final. Game time is set for 7:30 p.m. at Thompson Arena.