The Lake Forest College men's hockey team defeated visiting University of Wisconsin-Stout 6-2 Saturday night in the season opener for both programs. The Forester victory came in the debut of Patrick Kelliher as the Foresters' head coach.
Lake Forest jumped out to an early lead on a pair of goals in the opening period. Senior forward Bobby Barrett, the team's leading scorer a year ago, started the scoring at the 16:15 mark with senior defenseman Andrew Stein picking up the assist. Senior forward Luke Swardenski doubled the Forester lead with a power play goal exactly one minute later with assists credited to Barrett and senior defenseman Ben Certo.
Certo recorded the second of his three assists on the night on the Foresters' first goal of the second period. The score by sophomore forward Jack Lewis came on the power play at 7:54 and gave the home team a 3-0 lead. The advantage reached four goals when Barrett assisted Lewis at 10:56. After Stout converted a power play opportunity at 13:25, the Foresters regained their four-goal lead just 32 seconds later on freshman forward Shawn Nelson's first career score. Nelson was assisted by sophomore forward Justin Pelock and senior defenseman Anthony Martinez. Stout scored again just 18 seconds later and the score remained 5-2 throughout the rest of the period.
Lewis completed his first career hat trick on a power play goal at 10:43 in the third period. What turned out to be the final score of the game was assisted by Swardenski and Certo.
Lake Forest junior goaltender Leo Podolsky made 25 saves to earn the victory.
The Foresters will begin Northern Collegiate Hockey Association play next weekend at Northland College. The teams will face off Friday night at 7:00 and again at 3:00 Saturday afternoon.