The Lake Forest College women's hockey team defeated visiting College of St. Scholastica 5-2 on Saturday. Forester senior forward Melissa Paluch had two goals and two assists in the contest.
Paluch's first goal of the contest was assisted by fellow senior forward Holly Lesperance and tied the score at one at the 12:05 mark of the opening period.
The score remained 1-1 until Paluch struck again at 6:19 in the second. Her team-high-tying fourth score of the season was assisted by sophomore defenseman Caroline Campbell and put the Foresters ahead for good. Lesperance extended the home team's lead to two goals with four minutes to play in the period. The second score of the year for Lesperance was set up by freshman forward Amy Budde and sophomore defenseman Kayla Griffith.
After the Saints pulled back to within a goal at 6:05 in the third, the Foresters regained their two-score advantage exactly eight minutes later on sophomore forward Leah Ebdon's first of the year. Budde and Paluch assisted on the play. The final goal of the contest was an empty net, shorthanded goal by senior defenseman Alex Stensland that traveled nearly the entire length of the ice and slid into the goal with exactly one minute on the clock. Paluch was credited with the assist, her second of the day and the program record-tying 51st of her career. Former Forester Melissa Kravich also had 51 career assists from 2008-11.
Lake Forest freshman goaltender Abby Cooper stopped 17 of 19 shots on goal and earned the victory in her collegiate debut.
The Foresters outshot the Saints 42-19 in the non-conference contest and improved to 3-0-1 on the season. St. Scholastica fell to 1-1-0.
The same two teams will face off again Saturday afternoon at 2:00 in a game that will count in the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association standings.
