LONDON, Ont. — Cody Brown stuffed in a Stefan Salituro rebound just over a minute into overtime and Marc Nother turned aside 41 of the 43 shots he faced on Friday night to lead the Mustangs over the York Lions by a score of 3-2 at Thompson Arena.
 
York tied the game late in the third period to force extra time, getting two goals from Jordan Forfar and Michael Santini with goalie Chris Perugini pulled. After the match, Nother spoke about pulling out the tight win.
 
"It was a tough one at the end there but I think we played 58 solid minutes and then just two minutes at the end there went a little sideways," said Nother with a laugh. "I mean we got the win, so that's all that matters."
 
That win was Norther's fourth in as many appearances this season, and the solid performance helped improve his season save percentage to an excellent .926. Western now holds a record of 15-4-1 on the year after losing their first game of 2015 to Carleton last Saturday.
 
"I thought our recipe was good, I thought the guys applied what we wanted to do and I thought we had a great defensive effort except for the last minute and a half," said Mustangs head coach Clarke Singer. "You know it's tough, you're upset about how it goes, but when they've got an extra guy on the ice it's tough to defend that."
 
The opening period was a fast one, with the teams trading chances for the majority of play and forcing turnovers. As a result, any extended momentum was hard to come by, especially at five-on-five. York would catch the first break of the game, getting a power play just over five minutes into the game, but Western was able to neutralize both of their units.
 
When Western finally got their first power play of the period just under 14 minutes in, they had a couple of chances from the face-off dot and the point but found themselves unable to establish any significant pressure for the better part of the man advantage. Then, with just nine seconds left in the penalty, Colten Mayor would cash in on a nice cross-crease pass from Noah Schwartz, sliding the puck between Perugini's outstretched legs.
 
But Perugini ensured that the Mustangs wouldn't head into the intermission with any more than a one goal lead, however, making a number of nice scramble saves late in the period as Western pressed to capitalize on their momentum. He finished the first frame with 13 saves on 14 shots, and would end up with 39 saves on the night.
 
He continued his solid play into the second period, when the Mustangs would capitalize on their newfound momentum by firing another 14 shots his way. On the other end, Western was able to limit York's chances and got some great contributions on defence, highlighted by a nice sliding block from sophomore defence man Colin MacDonald.
 
Stefan Salituro would spoil Perugini's frame with just under four minutes left, however, jumping on a Kyle De Coste rebound on the man advantage to put Western up by a pair. Salituro almost didn't get the puck in the open net, losing his footing as he went to shoot, but he still found a way to lift the puck up and over Perugini for his eleventh tally of the year.
 
"I kind of fanned on it," Salituro said post-game of the shot that got him the goal. "It kind of bounced up— it was a bouncing puck— but it hit the top of my stick and kind of rain bowed into the net so a little bit lucky but I'll take it."
 
In the third frame it would be Nother who would see the majority of pressure, as the Lions made him work for his win with a number of high quality chances. He stopped a breakaway just under five minutes in, extending his pad to keep the wrist shot out, before stopping a wraparound and another shot from in close before the ten minute mark of the frame.
 
The final ten minutes were no different, as York used a pair of power play opportunities to keep the pressure on. With the goalie pulled they were finally able to slip two goals past an exhausted Nother, who finished the frame with a game-high 24 shots against.
 
"Marc had a great game," said coach Singer. "He's done that for us all year and we wanted to get him back in the net and he got another win for us so he was probably one of our best players tonight."
 
Next up for Western is a game in Toronto tomorrow, as the Mustangs hit the road for a matchup against the Varsity Blues at Varsity Arena. Game time is set for 7:30 p.m. and all the action can be watched on OUA.tv. After the game, Singer spoke about what he expected from U of T.
 
"We don't often come out of that rink with a win in my tenure at Western," he said. "So it's a very difficult place to play, [head coach Darren Lowe] does a great job with his team there at U of T and it's going to be a very similar game as tonight, very physical and hard working and we're going to need to be as good as we were tonight."
 
Notes
 
York's Michael Santini extended point streak to nine games on Friday. His is the longest running in the OUA and has seen him compile seven goals and six assists for 13 points… Steve Reese and Julian Cimadamore entered the game tied for the league lead in power play goals at six, but neither of them factored into Western's success on this night… With 600 shots against, Perugini entered the game as the second-most peppered goaltender in the OUA (behind Ryerson backstop and 'world's busiest man' Troy Passingham) and had faced 40 plus shots five times. With 42 shots on Friday, that number is now at six…