Box Score After an emotional win to open the season on Thursday, the Waterloo Warriors must have felt like they'd taken their first step in the long journey towards becoming the 2012-13 OUA West division champions. A night later, reigning OUA West rookie of the year Zach Harnden reminded them who the 2011-12 champions were.

Harnden notched a hat trick and the Warriors found themselves on the wrong end of four unanswered goals, as the sixth-ranked Western Mustangs registered a 6-2 victory on Friday night at the Columbia Icefield arena in Waterloo. The loss evens the Warriors' record at 1-1-0 after the first weekend of the OUA regular season.

The line of Harnden, Steve Reese and Daniel Elrich combined for 9 points, as the latter two each drew assists on all three of Harnden's tallies. Also finding the back of the cage for the Mustangs were Julian Cimadamore, David Corrente and Matt Clarke. Veteran forwards Andy Smith (Rosetown/) and Josh Schappert (Winnipeg/) scored for the Warriors.

As they did in their season opener the night before, the Warriors found themselves in some penalty trouble early in the first period. With the help of a timely post-to-post save by netminder Justin Leclerc (Saskatoon/), The penalty killing unit held Western at bay during a 40-second 5-on-3 advantage. But, shortly after killing off the first of their penalties and drawing a call of their own, Cimadamore put the Warriors behind with a breakaway goal at the 8-minute mark.

The second period saw a flurry of action that began with Harnden's first goal, the completion of a gorgeous three-way passing play on an odd-man rush. The Warriors were quick to push back though, evening the game with two goals in 38 seconds.

First, Smith took the Colin Behenna (Waterloo/) feed and found room over the glove of Western keeper Josh Unice on the power play. On the next shift, Kain Allicock (Markham/) dragged the puck to the goalmouth and created a mad scramble that was finished off when Schappert whacked home a rebound out of mid air to square the game at 2.

It looked as though the game would enter the final period with the score still even, but a late Mustangs goal proved to be the beginning of the end for the Warriors hopes. With just under four minutes to play in the second, Corrente blasted a seeing-eye point shot that changed directions before beating Leclerc. The period ended with the Mustangs up 3-2, and it was a lead they would never relinquish.

In the third, Harnden stretched the lead to two goals just over a minute in, before former ECHL and AHL pro Matt Clarke rifled a highlight-reel goal over the catching glove of Leclerc. Harnden finished off his hat trick and the game's scoring with another beautiful tic-tac-toe play on a late 3-on-1.

The Warriors will now take the week to prepare for next week's action, as they'll host the always-stingy Lakehead Thunderwolves on Friday, Oct. 19 at 7:30 at the Columbia Icefield arena. Then, on Saturday, Oct. 20, the Warriors will head out on the road for the first time this season as they travel to Toronto to take on the York Lions.

Notes: Western outshot Waterloo 42-34…The Warriors went 1-5 on the power play, while the Mustangs went 0-6…Warriors defenceman Sam Caldwell (Cape Breton/) made his CIS debut after being a healthy scratch for the season opener…Western defenceman Geoff Killing left the game in the second period favoring his hand, and did not return to action.