“I thought back to when our season ended in Oxford, and how anxious our team was to get playing again,” Anastos said. “The summer went by so fast, it seemed like a long time since we played. We showed a better aptitude of creating a better offence.”

The game got started with pressure on the Western Ontario net from the Spartans.

A shot from sophomore forward Matt DeBlouw went just wide of the net and bound back up to the blue line where it was corralled by junior defenseman RJ Boyd, who let it rip. Freshman forward Villiam Haag got the deflection for his first goal in a Spartan uniform.

“I try to keep myself in front of the goal because it’s the way to score goals,” Haag said. “If I try to keep open and keep my stick on the ice, I feel we’ll have good chemistry and can create something good for the team. We have the small things to work on, but we’re in a good place.”

The Spartans out-shot the Mustangs 28-12 in the first period, and also won the shots on target category 15-6.

The second period saw no scoring and more pressure on sophomore goalie Jake Hildebrand.

It took just 44 seconds in the third period for senior forward Dean Chelios to find the top corner of the net past the backup Western Ontario goalie after nice forward passes from Boyd and senior forward Greg Wolfe.

“There was plenty of times last year where we had a tic-tac-toe play that got broken up and now we’re back checking,” Wolfe said. “We had an odd man rush and then it turned into an odd man rush for them. When we’re on offence, we’re looking to shoot. We’re really committed to that right now and we’re going to keep working on it.”

After getting taken down with a clear path to the net, sophomore forward Michael Ferrantino was given a penalty shot just over six minute into the third. He promptly put it five-hole to give the Spartans a 3-1 lead.

Ferrantino had another open look at goal, but decided against the shot, and passed it off to freshman forward Joe Cox who had an open net on the right side.

“This summer we got to clear our heads a little bit,” Ferrantino said. “It was a tough season last year, and we knew that this year we could be a really good hockey team and that was a good opportunity for us. We used last season as motivation to really work hard.”

He finished the game with one goal and one assist to earn first star. Haag and Hildebrand were second and third stars, respectively.

The team has the week off before heading to Amherst, Mass. to take on No. 1 Massachusetts in back-to-back games.

Anastos said while he’s glad the team came within a shot of reaching their goal, there’s still much work to be done.

“We showed a better aptitude of creating a better offence,” he said. “We saw some nice puck possession and puck movement. We turned away some shots as well. Results matter for sure, and we’re happy with the results, but we’re focused on becoming a better team and a more productive team.”