Nasty things, those streaks. They can be mean ones. To a man, the Western Mustangs hockey team would love to still be on their celebrated run of wins but you sensed a tiny smidgen of relief when it ended Friday night at 16 games against Waterloo. We got together after the game and nobody was down. We showed a lot of heart with the comeback and we felt we all learned from that game.
Some observers trot out a flawed rationale whenever a streak, winning or losing, ends.
The truth is, if a team has won 16 in a row, don't apply that overdue argument if you're betting real money. When these teams played Wednesday, Western turned it up to score three goals in 23 seconds, two by captain Jeff Petrie, in a 6-4 win. If anything can be said losing does do, it provides the fuel to work harder. It's a motivator. An optimist might say it was timely.