Box Score For the Waterloo Warriors, there's nothing like shaking a five-year-old monkey off their collective backs – especially when that monkey is a purple horse.

Two early third-period goals helped the Warriors topple the Western Mustangs 4-3 on Saturday night, snapping a ten-game regular season winless streak against their foes from London in the process. The win, Waterloo's first against Western since October 8, 2009, lifted the Warriors to 4-1 and into sole possession of 2^nd in the OUA West Division early in the season.

For the second time in 24 hours, Justin Larson (Buckhorn) netted a game-winning-goal in the third period for the Warriors. Chris Chappell (Pickering) added a goal and an assist for Waterloo, while captain Joe Underwood (Canton) and Riley Sonnenburg (Cambridge) also added tallies in a game that saw the Warriors erase three separate one-goal deficits.

Noah Schwartz, Julian Cimadamore, and Stefan Saliturio scored goals for the Mustangs, who were handed their first loss of the season after starting 3-0. Mike Morrison (Hamilton) was outstanding at times in the Warriors net, turning aside 35 shots for the win. Greg Dodds took the loss for the Mustangs, making 26 stops in defeat.

The Mustangs were first to get on the board early in the opening frame, when Schwartz tipped home a David Corrente point shot to make it 1-0 Western. Underwood evened things on the power play with a seeing-eye wrister that beat Dodds, courtesy a tremendous screen in front by Waterloo's Brett Mackie (Whitby). Cimadamore responded on a Western power play less than five minutes later, making it 2-1 for the visitors after 20 minutes.

The Warriors carried the play for the bulk of the second period, and after Sonnenburg finished a pretty give-and-go off the side boards to square the score at 2-2, it looked as though the teams would remain deadlocked into the third. But with less than a minute to play in the period, Salituro marched out from the corner and sniped a perfect shot over Morrison's glove and under the cross bar for a 3-2 Mustangs lead after two.

The late goal could have deflated the Warriors, but instead they came out flying in the third. Less than two minutes into the period, Chappell got some time and space along the left wing and fired home a snap shot between Dodds' glove and pad. Then, less than two minutes later on a man advantage, Larson found a soft spot in the high slot and slammed home a one-timer for the eventual winner.

The game's highest dramatics were still to come though, when, during a delayed slashing penalty to Mackie, Colin Behenna (Waterloo) was called for a second slashing infraction, giving Western a full two-minute 5-on-3 advantage with less than seven minutes to play in regulation. However, Morrison made a highlight-reel post-to-post blocker save and the Warriors were able to kill the penalties to secure the win.

The Warriors will now turn their attention to a pair of teams from the big smoke, as they'll travel to Toronto to take on U of T on Friday night at 7:30 pm before returning home next Saturday to host Ryerson at 6:30 pm.

Notes: The Warriors went 2-for-2 on the power play, while Western went 1-for-5…Larson's goal moved him into a tie with Jason Mervyn (1992-95) for 14^th on the Warriors' all-time scoring list (115 points)…Waterloo's two power play markers were the first two given up by Western all season.