The Lakehead Thunderwolves defeated the Western Ontario Mustangs 4-3 in the second overtime session to wind up the first half of the season in thrilling fashion in front of 2153 fans at the Fort William Gardens on Saturday night.
Western Ontario scored the only goal of the first period when David Corrente beat Lakehead goalie Justin McDonald at 13:36. McDonald made several big saves in the opening stanza which saw Western outshoot the Wolves 17-10, and his strong play would continue throughout the night.
Carson Dubchak got Lakehead on the board on a goal assisted by his brother Brennen at 6:01 of the second period, and then just over two minutes later Nathan Bruyere and Nathan Cull set up David Quesnele in the slot who made no mistake in blasting the puck past Mustangs netminder Greg Dodds.
The Wolves lead was short-lived, as Western Ontarios Stephen Gaskin scored on a two-on-one situation when he fired the puck high past McDonald with a shot that the Lakehead puck-stopper had no chance on.
The Mustangs outshot the Thunderwolves 19-8 in the middle frame, and the game was deadlocked at 2-2 heading into the final twenty minutes of regulation.
Julian Cimadamore gave Western a 3-2 lead on a hard shot that beat McDonald low on the glove side at 8:56 of the third period.
Lakehead began to mount more pressure as the period went on, and with 5:06 remaining, Carson Dubchak flipped the puck over Dodds to even the score at 3-3. Brennen Dubchak and E.J. Faust collected the assists.
The Mustangs narrowly outshot Lakehead 14-12 in the third period.
The first five minutes of four-on-four overtime was scoreless despite several good chances for both sides.
The game really opened up in the three-on three overtime session with plenty of end-to end action. But Kelin Ainsworth notched the game-winner when he went in alone on Dodds and beat him with a nice backhand move at the 3:19 mark. Jay Gilbert and Mike Hammond picked up the assists.
The final shots on goal tally was 53-33 in favor of the Mustangs.
The Molson Three Stars of the Game were:
1.Justin McDonald, Lakehead
2.Carson Dubchak, Lakehead
3.Kelin Ainsworth, Lakehead
The OUA will now go on hiatus for the Christmas exams break. The Wolves' next games will be January 2nd and 3rd when the Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs visit the Fort William Gardens in the Crime Stoppers Christmas Challenge.