Foresters Finish Off Successful Weekend with Win at Lawrence

Photo by Steve Frommell, d3photography.com
Photo by Steve Frommell, d3photography.com

Senior forward Charlie Izaguirre scored the first and last goals of the Lake Forest College men's hockey team's 6-1 victory Saturday night at Lawrence University.

Izaguirre accounted for the only score of the opening period and was assisted by fellow senior forward Billy Kent at the 6:16 mark. The visitors were out-shot 11-10 in the game's first 20 minutes but Forester junior goaltender Louis-Philippe De Courcy kept the Vikings off the scoreboard. 

Both teams put 13 shots on goal and scored once in the second. Lawrence tied the game just 17 seconds into the period and the Foresters regained the lead on a short-handed goal by freshman forward Aaron O'Neill at 14:28. Izaguirre assisted on Lake Forest's third short-handed goal and O'Neill's second game-winner of the year.

The visitors tacked on four insurance goals in the final 20 minutes, beginning with sophomore defenseman Connor Duncan's fifth score of the season at 4:06. He was assisted by O'Neill and junior forward Cody Guidorzi. O'Neill struck for the second time on the night and seventh this year at 8:53 with Guidorzi and junior forward Bron Loiselle assisting. 

After coming up empty on their first five power play opportunities of the night, the Foresters converted on their last two. Duncan and freshman forward Joe Sardina set up Guidorzi's seventh goal of the season at the 13:18  mark. After an altercation resulted in three penalties on the visitors and four for Lawrence at 16:47, Izaguirre closed out the scoring with 1:55 on the clock. Kent and fellow senior forward George Gerasimou, the team's leader with 17 points, were credited with assists on the fourth score of the season for Izaguirre.

Lake Forest had a 14-10 advantage in shots on goal in the third period and a 37-34 edge on the night.

De Courcy, stopped all 33 shots on goal he faced in a 1-0 victory at Marian University the night before, matched that save total while surrendering just one goal on Saturday. He improved to 8-5-0 with a 2.13 goals against average and .927 save percentage on the year.

The Foresters improved to 11-8-0 overall and took over sole possession of second place in the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association standings with a league record of 8-4-0. Lawrence fell to 8-10-1 overall and 6-6-0 in the league.

After back-to-back weekends on the road, Lake Forest will host Milwaukee School of Engineering Friday night at 7:30 before traveling to Concordia University Wisconsin the next day for a 7:00 p.m. contest.