The Lake Forest College men's hockey team prevailed 5-1 at Concordia University Wisconsin Saturday night to finish off a home-and-home weekend sweep of the Falcons. Senior forward Bobby Barrett's score in the second period turned out to be the official game-winning goal.
Barrett was assisted by sophomore forward Jack Lewis at the 10:24 in the second. The only goal of the period was Barrett's seventh of the season and his seventh career game-winner.
Concordia had taken the early lead at the 7:14 mark of the opening period by the Foresters tied the score on a power play goal by senior defenseman Ben Certo with 46 seconds to play before the first intermission. The unassisted score was Certo's fourth goal of the year.
Lake Forest scored a pair of insurance goals early in the third period. Senior defenseman Andrew Stein lit the lamp while on the power play at 1:18 and Lewis added to the lead with an unassisted goal at 2:26. Junior forward Ian Pichel earned an assist on Stein's four of the season and Lewis now has seven goals and a team-high 22 points on the year. Freshman forward Charlie Izaguirre closed out the scoring with his second career goal at the 14:12 mark with Stein and senior forward Jason McAloon assisting on the play.
Forester junior goaltender Leo Podolsky turned away 31 of the Falcons' 32 shots on goal in the contest, including all 21 he faced in the second period alone. He improved to 11-2-3 with a 1.63 goals against average and .951 save percentage on the season.
After being out-shot 27-13 through 40 minutes of play, Lake Forest put 13 shots on goal to the home team's five in the final period.
Saturday night's contest was game two of the teams' inaugural Border Battle and the series sweep by the Foresters means the traveling trophy will reside in Lake Forest for the next year.
The victory also raised the Foresters' overall record on the season to 11-3-5 and their Northern Collegiate Hockey Association mark to 9-2-1. With a 9-0-4 record since the Saturday before Thanksgiving, Lake Forest owns the longest current unbeaten streak in the nation and the second-longest run in program history. The team won 14 consecutive games during the 1977-78 season, a streak that finally ended in the NCAA Division II national championship game.
Lake Forest will take on Lawrence University in another home-and-home series next weekend. The teams will face off in Appleton, Wisconsin, at 7:00 Friday night and again at the same time in Lake Forest on Saturday.