TORONTO - Two goals from Matt Mistele (Whitby, Ont.) and a season-record fifteenth win from goalie Garrett Forrest (Ashburn, Va.) helped the Rams beat the Waterloo Warriors 3-2 in overtime on Thursday night. 

Jesse Barwell (Oakville, Ont.) scored his fourth goal in three games to open the scoring, while Devon Paliani (LaSalle, Ont.) and Gregory DiTomaso (Etobicoke, Ont.) extended their own point streaks to three games. 

Things were quiet in the opening half of the first period. A hard hit from Andrew Mullen (Toronto) drew some cheers from the Ryerson bench, and the Rams killed off a holding and slashing call. 

On the Warriors' second man-advantage, a giveaway allowed Marcus Hinds (Toronto) to feed a darting Barwell for a short-handed breakaway. The forward made no mistake shoveling in a quick backhand. 

Less than five minutes later, Zachary Shankar's (Prescott, Ont.) point shot was redirected by Mistele through Trevor Martin's five-hole to put the Rams up 2-0.

The Rams came out speeding in the second period, earning themselves a 2-man advantage just two minutes into the frame. Despite head coach Johnny Duco using Ryerson's timeout to plan an attack, Waterloo was able to hold the Rams' offence at bay and killed off the penalty. 

The Rams' onslaught continued, forcing Waterloo's Markson Bechtold to take a hooking penalty a few minutes later. Once again, the Warriors were able to kill it off, bringing the Rams' power play unit to 0-for-4 about halfway into the second. 

To make matters worse of the Rams' power play unit, the puck found Bechtold as he stepped out of the box. In alone on a breakaway, Bechtold's deke just beat Forrest's valiant poke check attempt to make things 2-1. 

At the end of the second, the Rams' power play was 0-for-5 as the unit eventually ended up totally scoreless after six tries at the final whistle. 

In the third, both squads managed to stay at even strength. Neither team looked too aggressive early on, but it was Waterloo who struck halfway into the frame to knot things up at two. A bouncing puck allowed two Warriors go on an odd-man rush and Michael Morgan was able to sneak it by Forrest's outstretched pads. 

The Rams' penalty kill made another stop with five minutes to go in the game, and the unit forced Waterloo to go 0-for-5 themselves on the night. 

Mistele wasted little time in overtime, patiently taking DiTomaso's feed before potting it into the open cage. 

"They're (Waterloo) fighting for their playoff lives," said Duco post-game. "They did a great job on the penalty kill." Duco was also quick to praise Forrest, who made 27-saves to pick up the single-season win milestone. "(Waterloo) had some grade-A scoring chances in the third period and he came up huge for us like he has the majority of the year. He's been an absolute rock for us."

Forrest was calm about his stellar performance, saying, "I felt pretty good going into (today's) game. We played a really hungry team, it could have gone either way to be honest. But we prevailed in the end and got the two points, and we'll see them again Saturday."

On the second leg of their home-and-home, the Rams head to Waterloo to take on the Warriors this Saturday, with puck drop at 7:00 p.m. The action can be streamed live at OUA.TV.