The Lake Forest College men's hockey team traveled to Concordia University Wisconsin for a rare Thursday night game and came away with a 5-3 victory and sole possession of fourth place in the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association standings. Forester sophomore defenseman Will Seeber scored what proved to be the official game-winning goal.
Seeber's score with nine minutes remaining in the second period gave the visitors a 4-2 lead. Senior forward Mike Violette and junior forward Bobby Barrett assisted on the first goal of the season for Seeber.
Forester senior forward Pat Charron added an insurance goal, an unassisted score with 4:06 to play in the contest, to all but clinch the victory. It was his second score of the year. The Falcons netted the final goal of the night with 12 seconds on the clock.
Concordia also accounted for the first tally of the night at the 8:30 mark of the opening period. Lake Forest tied the game exactly one minute later on sophomore forward Ian Pichel's second score of the season. Pichel was assisted by Seeber and freshman forward Anthony Annunziato.
The score remained 1-1 until Pichel assisted Annunziato two-and-a-half minutes into the second period. Annunziato's third goal of the year gave the Foresters the lead for good. Junior forward Mcauley Banning netted his fourth goal of the year at the 5:07 mark with freshman forward Justin Pelock and junior forward Jason McAloon each picking up an assist. The home team responded with a goal just 29 seconds later to make the score 3-2 and set up Seeber's game-winner.
Lake Forest had a 42-20 advantage in shots on goal for the night and a 19-3 edge in the second period alone.
Forester sophomore goaltender Leo Podolsky made 17 saves to earn the victory and raised his record on the season to 7-1-1.
Concordia fell to 8-7-3 overall this season and 5-5-2 in NCHA play. The Foresters and Falcons entered the contest tied for fourth place in the league standing with 12 points. Lake Forest improved to 9-8-1 overall and 7-5-0 in the league.
The Foresters' next opponent, Amherst College, will play at Concordia Wisconsin Friday night before facing off in Lake Forest on Saturday. The non-conference game will begin at 7:00 p.m.