LONDON, Ont. – Alyssa Chiarello's fourth goal of the season couldn't have come at a better time, scoring just over a minute and a half into overtime to give the Western Mustangs a 2-1 win over the Nipissing Lakers on Saturday afternoon at Thompson Arena.
 
"I thought, for the most part, in terms of our structure, they did a really good job in using the special teams as part of our momentum into our overall five-on-five play," said Mustangs head coach Kelly Paton. "Obviously getting the power play goal in the first period was big, and we had a couple kills, and then continued going to the box. They obviously got one in the second period there. But, moving into the third we had a couple opportunities where big kills gave us momentum, and then a little bit of confidence as well."
 
Western sits at 9-2-3-1 with the overtime win, taking sole possession of second place in the OUA standings, only two points behind the Queen's Gaels. The win is also Western's fourth consecutive victory, and the Mustangs have gone undefeated since the calendar flipped to 2018 with three wins in the new year.
 
Saturday's loss snaps Nipissing's three-game winning streak and gives the Lakers an 8-2-4-2 record, good for fifth place in the league.
 
Chiarello and Amanda Pererira led the Mustangs offence with one goal each. Pererira scored the first marker of the night, also her fourth of the season, before Chiarello netted the overtime winner.
 
Kaley Tienhaara scored Nipissing's lone goal and now has six on the year to rank second on the team.
 
The first period started out as an evenly played affair before the Mustangs dominated the second half. Nipissing was limited to six shots on net thanks to tight defence from the Mustangs along with a series of power plays for the home side.
 
Western got the first point on the board ten minutes into the first frame on the power play. Pereira capitalized off a rebound at the top of the crease, sliding the puck past netminder Jackie Rochefort to put the Mustangs up 1-0.
 
"[April Clark] did a really good job getting it to Emma [Pearson] and I was kind of just wide open there in front, and it was good heads-up play by Emma to get the puck through," said Pereira. "The rebound came out and I just kind of swung and got it there."
 
The Mustangs had a hard time clearing the puck in the second period, and Nipissing controlled the play. Carmen Lasis had plenty of opportunities to showcase her abilities in the Western net, saving a breakaway with two minutes left and 19 shots total in the period.
 
Tienhaara scored for Nipissing on the power play half-way through the second frame, spinning around and putting the puck past Lasis to even the score at 1-1.
 
After neither team was able to solve the deadlock in the third, overtime was required to decide a winner.
 
A minute and a half into the three-on-three overtime, Chiarello netted the winning goal with a top shelf shot.
 
"[Clark] made a great pass over to me," said Chiarello. "Moving it across my body to the outside worked earlier in the game, so I kind of just thought hopefully that would work again, and my coach always tells me to shoot high, so I thought it was a great opportunity to bring that out."
 
The Mustangs have a tight turnaround following today's game, as they face the Laurentian Voyageurs tomorrow afternoon at Thompson Arena.
 
"For us we just want to look at some of the areas we can be better in," said Paton. "I think specifically for us it's our neutral-zone play and managing the puck and making good decisions around where our support is. So, we'll definitely take a look at that in video tomorrow before the game, but we're just taking it game by game. And we're going to look at our opponent and talk about strategies, where we think we can get an advantage."
 
The Mustangs are back on home ice tomorrow afternoon at 3 p.m. when they face Laurentian. Fans can catch all the action live on OUA.tv