The Lake Forest College men's hockey team defeated visiting Milwaukee School of Engineering Friday night. Forester senior forward Mike Violette scored the game-winning goal in the final regular season home game of his career.
Violette and fellow seniors Pat Charron and Chris Gard were honored before the contest. They have combined to play in 268 games in their careers and helped the team improve seven-and-a-half games last year and three-and-a-half so far this season.
After a scoreless opening period, M.S.O.E. netted the game's first goal while on the power play 63 seconds into the second.
Lake Forest tied the score just 24 seconds later on junior defenseman Andrew Stein's sixth goal of the year. He was assisted by Violette and junior forward Luke Swardenski. The Foresters took their first lead of the game with just 64 seconds to play in the period. The goal was the third of the season for freshman forward Justin Pelock and was set up by passes from junior forward Jason McAloon and freshman defenseman Will Seeber.
The Raiders tied the game at the 3:29 mark of the third period and it remained 2-2 until Violette converted a power play opportunity with 5:15 on the clock. His eighth goal of 2013-14 was assisted by junior forward Bobby Barrett and junior defenseman Charlie Stein.
Violette leads the Foresters with 17 assists and a +14 plus/minus rating this season and his 25 points are second on the squad behind Barrett's 26. The game-winner was his second of the year and the fourth of his career.
Lake Forest sophomore goaltender Leo Podolsky made 18 saves on the night and improved his record on the season to 11-1-1.
The Foresters are now 13-8-1 overall and 10-5-0 in Northern Collegiate Hockey Association play. M.S.O.E. fell to 6-15-1 overall and 5-10-0 in the league. The same two teams will face off at the Kern Center in Milwaukee Saturday at 4:30 p.m.
