The Lake Forest College women's hockey team posted a 4-3 victory at home over the University of Wisconsin-Superior, the seventh-ranked team in the country, Saturday afternoon. It was the first career victory for Forester junior goaltender Auriana Johnson.
Johnson made 22 saves in the game, including 12 in the final period.
Lake Forest scored first in the contest on sophomore Laura Reckdenwald's first goal of the year. Junior Maeve Connelly assisted on the goal at the 16:04 mark of the opening period and the home team led 1-0 and had a 13-9 advantage in shots on goal at the first intermission.
Superior tied the game at 10:29 in the second period but the Foresters regained the lead on freshman Michelle Greeneway's third score of the season at 18:58. She was assisted by senior Angie Chronis and freshman Logan Taylor. Lake Forest out-shot the visitors 19-4 in the period.
Sophomore Marissa Weber also scored for the third time this season at the 10:06 mark of the third period. She was assisted by Connelly and junior Sarah Gilbride. Freshman Melissa Paluch extended the Lake Forest lead to 4-1 on her fourth goal of the year two-and-a-half minutes later. Greeneway and sophomore Torey Crown assisted on the score that gave Paluch the team lead with eight points on the season.
Superior began its comeback with a goal at 13:17 and the Yellowjackets trimmed the margin to just one when they pulled their goalie and scored a power play goal with 1:04 remaining in the contest. The Foresters held on, however, to even the weekend series at one game apiece.
Lake Forest is now 3-2-4 overall and 2-1-4 in Northern Collegiate Hockey Association play this season. Superior fell to 8-4-0 overall and 5-3-0 in the league.
The Foresters' next two games will be played in the University of Massachusetts Boston's Codfish Bowl. Lake Forest will take on Plymouth State University at 4:00 p.m. (EST) on Thursday, January 3, and the tournament's consolation and championship games will be played at 1:00 and 4:00 the next day.
