The Foresters hosted and defeated Concordia University Wisconsin 6-3 Friday night in the final regular season home game for the Lake Forest seniors.
The team's senior class is made up of manager Andrew Kluge, defensemen Connor Duncan and Zach Feldman, forward Austin Aksoy, defenseman-turned-assistant coach Reed Scahill, and forward Tyler O'Neill, who graduated in December. They have helped lead the Foresters to 60 victories over the last four seasons, the most by any graduating class since 1981.
Lake Forest led 2-0 after the opening period with scores coming from junior forward Troy Nelson at 10:57 and sophomore forward Josh Giacomin at 19:20. Giacomin and freshman defenseman Brendan Coughlin set up the first tally and the second was inassisted. Lake Forest had a dozen shots on goal to the Falcons' six in the game's first 20 minutes.
Nelson netted his second score of the night and third this season at the 2:27 mark of the second period with an assist credited to freshman forward David Cohen.
The visitors, however, answered with their first goal of the game just 44 seconds later and closed to within one at the 7:31 mark.
The score remained 3-2 until the final minute of the second period when Duncan and junior forward Joey Sardina assisted on Giacomin's team-high 14th goal this year.
Both teams had 12 shots in the second.
After Concordia Wisconsin closed back to within a score 67 seconds into the third, the Foresters came up with the only power play goal of the game just 79 seconds later. It was the 10th of the year for sophomore forward Will Lebel, who was assisted by junior defenseman Mark DerManulian and freshman forward Drew Shields.
The Falcons pulled their goaltender with 1:42 on the clock and DerManulian found the empty net just five seconds later for his fourth goal of the year. The goalie headed to the bench again just a few second after the ensuing faceoff but neither team added to its total for the night.
Concordia Wisconsin outshot the home team 9-6 in the final period but Forester junior goaltender Boyd DiClemente stopped the final eight shots he saw and 24 of 27 on the night for his program record 16th victory of the season.
Lake Forest improved to 17-4-3 overall this season and remained tied with Adrian College atop the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association standings at 14-3-2 in the league. Concordia Wisconsin fell to 11-11-2 overall and 7-10-2 in NCHA play.
The Foresters can clinch at least a share of the league's regular season title with a victory in the regular season finale at Concordia Wisconsin Saturday night at 7:00. The game will be played at the Ozaukee Ice Center in Mequon, Wisconsin.
