Sophomore forward Charlie Izaguirre scored twice in a two-minute span in the third period to help lead the Lake Forest College men's hockey team to a 4-2 victory over visiting Lawrence University on Friday.
After a scoreless opening period, both teams struck for one goal in the second, beginning with the visitors at the 7:49 mark. Lake Forest tied the score on freshman forward Vito Aluia's sixth goal of the season at 16:53. He was assisted by senior defenseman Robert Wiener and senior forward Ian Pichel.
Izaguirre broke a 1-1 tie at the 5:24 mark of the third with freshman forward John Nugent and junior forward Jack Lewis assisting on the play. He netted another goal at 7:09 for the first official game-winning score of his career. Junior forward Jimmy Cusan set up Izaguirre's fourth goal this season.
Lawrence pulled back to within one only 18 seconds after Izaguirre's second goal but the Foresters regained their two-goal cushion just 76 seconds later. Sophomore forward Shawn Nelson's second score of the season was assisted by senior forward Alec DeAngelo and freshman forward Cody Guidorzi.
The Vikings pulled their goalie near the end of a power play with 2:11 remaining in the contest but were able to put just one shot on goal down the stretch.
Lake Forest senior goaltender Leo Podolsky stopped 32 of 34 shots on goal on the night, including 13 in the final period.
It was the final career home game for Wiener, Pichel, DeAngelo, Podolsky. All four players were honored before the contest.
The Foresters are now 10-14-0 overall this season. They improved to 8-11-0 in Northern Collegiate Hockey Association play but were unable to move ahead of Concordia University Wisconsin, who won 6-5 in overtime at Northland College, in the standings. The two teams enter the final day of the regular season tied for third in the NCHA's South Division and the top three teams will advance to the Harris Cup Playoffs. Concordia Wisconsin owns the tiebreaker after outscoring Lake Forest 6-4 during a series split to open the season.
Lawrence fell to 8-13-3 overall and 7-9-3 in the league. The Vikings are two points out of third place in the North Division and needs a victory over the visiting Foresters in Saturday night's 7:00 contest to qualify for the postseason.
