The Lake Forest College women's hockey team hosted and defeated St. Mary's University 6-5 Sunday night in the opener of a two-game non-conference series. Sophomore forward Melissa Paluch netted a pair of goals, including one of the Foresters' two third period short-handed scores.
Fellow Forester sophomore forward Logan Taylor started the scoring at the 5:11 mark of the opening period. Her fifth goal of the season was assisted by freshman forward Isabel Regine. Paluch doubled the home team's lead with 5:14 remaining in the period with junior forward Marissa Weber picking up an assist.
Lake Forest was out-shot 9-8 in the first period but led 2-0 after 20 minutes of play.
The teams alternated goals in the second period, beginning with the Cardinals' first of the game at 4:06. The Foresters regained their two-goal advantage on the first career goal by Regine at 7:54. Junior forward Emily Wybo and freshman forward Allie Girard assisted on the play. St. Mary's struck again at the 8:33 mark but Weber's seventh score of the season at 13:09 put the home team ahead by two once again. Weber was assisted by junior forward Laura Reckdenwald.
The Cardinals had a 13-12 edge in shot on goal in the second period and a 12-10 advantage in the third. They became just the second opponent this season to out-shoot the Foresters in a game.
A hooking penalty on Taylor at the 8:19 mark of the third period could have opened the door for St. Mary's to close the gap but instead set up a notable first in program history. Paluch gained control of the puck and scored a short-handed goal at the 9:06 mark and sophomore forward Michelle Greeneway accomplished the same feat just 34 seconds later. It was the eighth goal of the year for Paluch and the team-high 15th for Greeneway. The Foresters had never before scored two short-handed goals in a game, much less during the same penalty.
St. Mary's made things interesting late in the game, scoring a short-handed goal of its own at 16:11 and adding even strength scores at 17:16 and 17:50 to pull within a single goal. Lake Forest senior goaltender Stacey Dierking and the rest of the home team held the Cardinals scoreless the rest of the way, however to secure the victory.
Dierking is now 1-1-1 on the season and the Foresters raised their record to 6-3-2. St. Mary's fell to 2-7-0.
The same two teams will face off again Monday afternoon at 4:00.
