The Lake Forest College women's hockey team made it two convincing victories in as many days Saturday by defeating Concordia University Wisconsin 8-1 at home. Forester sophomore Melissa Paluch recorded her second career hat trick.
Paluch started the scoring with 4:01 to play in the opening period. She was assisted by sophomore forward Michelle Greeneway and sophomore defenseman Natalie Pattison. The Foresters doubled their lead with just nine seconds to play in the period when junior forward Marissa Weber netted her first goal of the season. She was assisted by freshman forward Allie Girard.
The home team put the game out of reach with four goals in the second period. The first was an unassisted score at 5:40 by junior forward Morgan Pope, who extended her point streak to five games. Fellow junior forward Emily Wybo converted a power play opportunity at the 8:17 mark with junior forward Laura Reckdenwald and junior defenseman Erin Shamley each picking up an assist on Wybo's second score of the year. Pope, assisted by Reckdenwald and Greeneway, scored her second goal of the game and team-high sixth this season at 14:56. Paluch struck again at 18:18 with freshman forward Isabel Regine assisting for her first career point.
The Foresters added a pair of power play goal in the third period. Paluch scored the first, her fourth goal of the weekend and season, at the 12:34 mark with an assist credited to sophomore forward Logan Taylor. Greeneway scored the home team's final goal of the contest at 16:08. Taylor and senior defenseman Sarah Gilbride assisted on Greeneway's fifth goal of the year.
Concordia Wisconsin finally got on the scoreboard with 59 seconds to play in the game.
Lake Forest out-shot the Falcons 16-5 in the first period, 20-4 in the second, and 11-7 in the third.
Forester freshman goaltender Casey Hartfiel made 15 saves on Saturday and stopped 38 of 39 Falcon shots on goal in the weekend's home-and-home series. She is now 3-2-1 with a 2.14 goals against average and .922 save percentage this season.
Lake Forest raised its overall and Northern Collegiate Hockey Association record to 3-2-1 while Concordia Wisconsin fell to 3-3-0 overall and 2-2-0 in the league.
The Foresters will travel to the College of St. Scholastica next weekend to take on the Saints at 7:00 Friday night and again Saturday afternoon at 4:00.
