LONDON, Ont. – The inaugural Snowy Saddle game saw the Mustangs treat their fans to a particularly thrilling contest, going to overtime to top the Lakehead Thunderwolves 3-2 at Thompson Arena.

The win means that the Mustangs now have points in their last 11 games, stretching their current win streak to three consecutive games.

"It's definitely a lot better than the start of the year," said Cordell James. "We had our ups and downs but right now we've been playing great, sticking together as a unit and it's been working out for us."

Western is now 14-9-3, and sit in fourth in the OUA West, two points back of the York Lions for third, with two games left on the schedule.

Ray Huether, Mitchell Fitzmorris, and Cordell James provided the offense for the Mustangs, while both of Lakehead's goals were scored by Callum Fryer.

James netted the eventual game winner in overtime, while the Mustangs penalty kill continued to improve, going two for two for the night.

Both teams were scoreless in the first period, despite back and forth play that saw both teams generate solid offensive opportunities.

However, Western would dictate the pace of play, outshooting the Thunderwolves 15-12 throughout the first 20 minutes. The Mustangs had several great scoring chances, but couldn't finish the play. Their puck movement was good, with the defenders showing strong passing, and the offence cycling the puck well.

Several small defensive mistakes allowed the Thunderwolves a few chances of their own, but overall the defense did a good job supporting Peressini in their own zone. The defenders executed well on the breakout, giving the offense a couple odd man rushes and scoring opportunities of their own.

Jonathan Laser had a strong period, managing to shutdown a three on one opportunity for the Thunderwolves, and keep the puck moving in the neutral zone while holding the offensive line.

The game would not remain scoreless for long, with the Mustangs jumping out to a 1-0 lead a mere four minutes into the second period. The goal came from Ray Huether, who unloaded a wrist shot top shelf to give his team the lead.

The initial pass came from Matt Watson, while Laser picked up an assist to continue his stellar play from the first period.

"Watty made a nice pass there across the seam, and I just let it go," said Huether. "It worked out that it went in the net."

The Thunderwolves couldn't contain the Mustangs offence, who managed to outshoot Lakehead 12-6 in the second frame, and 27-18 through 40 minutes of play.

"The guys are buying into the game plan," said Mustangs assistant coach Patrick Ouellet. "I know it sounds cliché but even before the break when we were losing games, it was one goal games all the time."

Emotions were flying high, with the physicality to result in a Lakehead power play in the last three minutes of the period.

The purple and white penalty kill came out flying however, keeping the Thunderwolves hemmed into the offensive zone, and almost notching a short-handed goal.

Compared to the earlier two, the third period was a high scoring affair.

The Mustangs struck six minutes into the frame, when Fitzmorris blasted home a one-timer, on a pass from Huether. Huether danced around his defender along the boards, before feeding Fitzmorris in the slot to give the Mustangs a 2-0 lead.

Lakehead was not to be counted out, scoring two goals in two minutes to tie the game up.

"Lakehead was stretching a guy the whole third period, and we talked about it," said Ouellet. "It was just guys missing assignments, just focusing on the puck too much and not having their head on a swivel."

Both of the Thunderwolves goals came from Fryer, who first burned his defender, creating a one on none, before deking out Peressini and burying it backhand. For his second goal, Fryer snuck behind his defender to cut across the crease, sending the puck top shelf off another backhand shot.

"I think we just got a little lackadaisical out there we thought we had the game in the bag," said James. the boys stuck together and we were able to pull it out."

After a back and forth five minutes to close out the game, overtime was needed to decide a winner.

"They gave up the lead with seven minutes left in the game, they could have just given up but they were resilient," said Ouellet. "They came back and had a hell of an OT, it was crazy."

Overtime was a goaltending duel, with the puck going end to end, as Peressini and Lakehead netminder Devin Green made show-stopping saves to keep the game going. With seconds left on the clock, a Lakehead turnover was optimized by Laser, sending the puck to James who netted the game winner.

"Going into the OT both teams I think were pretty tired, with a lot of chances back and forth," said James. "Luke made a bunch of great saves there and we were able to close it out."

The Mustangs will wrap up their regular season schedule next week, with a pair of back-to-back matchups against the Windsor Lancers. The first game goes Thursday night at Thompson Arena in the Mustangs annual Senior Day game, followed by a return match on Saturday evening in Windsor.