The Lake Forest College men's hockey team skated past visiting Concordia University Wisconsin 5-1 Saturday night and caught the Falcons in the Midwest Collegiate Hockey Association standings. Forester freshman defenseman Rafael Turcotte started the scoring with his first career goal.
Freshman Luke Swardenski and sophomore Roberto Caparelli assisted Turcotte at the 11:22 mark of the opening period. It turned out to be the only score in the game's first 20 minutes.
Lake Forest senior Joel Gard was presented with the program's annual Peter Taylor Award during the first intermission.
The home team doubled its lead on a power play goal by Caparelli at 4:46 in the second. His fourth score of the year was assisted by Turcotte and sophomore Mike Violette. A score by Swardenski at the 17:07 mark gave the Foresters a 3-0 lead at the end of two periods. Junior Thomas Bark and sophomore David Milne were each credited with an assist on the play.
Concordia Wisconsin converted a power play opportunity at the 7:53 mark of the third period to make the score 3-1, but a power play score by Swardenski less than four minutes later regained the three-goal lead for the Foresters. Turcotte and sophomore Kevin Spotts asssited on Swardenski's fifth goal of the season. Lake Forest sophomore David Milne closed out the scoring at 17:36 with his first goal of the year. He was assisted by Violette and sophomore Craig McDowell.
The Foresters out-shot the Falcons 9-4 in the first period and 14-9 in the second. Both teams put six shots on goal in the final 20 minutes.
Lake Forest junior goaltender Brendan Sullivan stopped 18 of 19 shots on goal in the game and 45 of 48 on the weekend.
The Foresters are now 3-16-0 overall and 3-11-0 in Midwest Collegiate Hockey Association play. After winning three of four games against Concordia Wisconsin on the season, they are tied with the 2-14-3 (2-10-2) Falcons for third place in the league's South Division standings with six points apiece.
Lake Forest will host Adrian College next weekend. The teams will face off at 7:00 Friday night and 2:30 the following afternoon.