The Lake Forest College men's hockey team dropped a 7-4 decision at Adrian College, the top-ranked team in the nation, Friday night.
Freshman forward Jared Gerger started the scoring for the visitors at the 7:40 mark of the opening period and junior forward David Cohen lit the lamp 90 seconds later to make the score 2-0. Gerger's sixth tally this season was assisted by junior forward Tyler Nielsen and Cohen's fifth was set up by Gerger and junior defenseman Scotty Nicholson.
The Bulldogs, however, finally got on the scoreboard at the 16:20 mark and tied the score two minutes later.
The home team had a 17-5 advantage in shots on goal in the opening period but the score was still tied at two at its completion.
Lake Forest regained the lead 22 seconds into the second on senior forward Josh Giacomin's team-high seventh score of the year. Sophomore forward Ben Perkins and senior forward Cullen Kane were credited with assists.
The Foresters' were not ahead long, as Adrian tied the game at the 4:26 mark, took the lead three minutes later, and extended it with 5:20 to play in the period.
The Bulldogs outshot their guests 22-5 in the second period and 11-7 in the third. They also committed their first penalty of the night seven seconds into the final period and Lake Forest converted the opportunity 67 seconds later. It was freshman defenseman Matteas Derraugh's fourth goal of the season and Giacomin picked up his team-high 12th assist of the year on the play.
Fifteen minutes passed before the home team netted an insurance goal that forced the Foresters to pull the goalie in favor of an extra attacker with two-and-a-half minutes remaining. The Bulldogs found to empty net with 1:19 remaining to clinch the victory.
Lake Forest fell to 6-11-1 overall and 4-6-1 in Northern Collegiate Hockey Association play while Adrian improved to 17-1-0 overall and 11-0-0 in the league.
The same two teams will face off again at Adrian Saturday afternoon at 3:00 (ET).