For the second time in less than 24 hours, the Forester men's hockey team skated to a tie with Aurora University on Saturday and earned an extra point in the league standings with a shootout victory.
The official score of Saturday's game at Aurora was 5-5 and the tying goal came off the stick of Lake Forest freshman forward Colin Bella with 6:55 to play in regulation. Sophomore forward Jared Gerger's pass from behind the net found Bella wide open on the inner part of the left circle. The shot from the Foresters' leading goal scorer caromed in off the right post for his second tally of the afternoon and sixth this season.
Neither team scored again in regulation or during the 5-minute, 3-on-3 overtime period. Bella successfully led off the shootout but the Spartans also converted their attempts in first round. After both teams failed to score in round two, Lake Forest sophomore forward Tyler Buonopane converted and Aurora did not, an exact repeat of the shootout result from Friday night.
Lake Forest senior forward David Cohen scored the game's first goal, his fifth of the year, at 11:34 in the opening period. The visitors, however, trailed 2-1 after 20 minutes of play.
The second period was a repeat of the first with the Foresters evening the score on junior forward Shane Hathaway's second score of the season and the Spartans responding with a pair of tallies, making the score 4-2 going into the final period.
Bella converted a power play opportunity just 44 seconds into the third but the Spartans answered with a power play goal of their own at 6:58. Forester Freshman defenseman Andrew Nieusma, who assisted on two goals earlier in the game, scored for the first time this year at 8:56 to once again cut the deficit to one. Bella tied the game at five a little more than four minutes later.
The visitors had a 47-40 advantage in shots on goal in the contest and Forester freshman goaltender Dylan Kruss made 35 saves.
Lake Forest is now 3-3-3 overall this season and 0-2-2 with four points in Northern Collegiate Hockey Association play. Aurora, which entered the weekend ranked 11th in the nation, is 6-1-2 overall and 4-0-2 with 14 points in the league.
The Foresters will host a pair of non-conference games against Bethel University next weekend. The teams will face off Friday night at 7:00 and again Saturday at 4:00 p.m.
