Senior forward Amy Budde turned in her second three-point performance in the last three games and Lake Forest prevailed 5-3 at Marian University on Friday.
The first of Budde's two goals was a short-handed score that broke a scoreless tie at the 5:23 mark of the opening period. She then set up sophomore forward Megan Lyke's fifth score of the season at the 9:52 mark and junior defenseman Julia Unterseher added an unassisted goal 99 seconds later to give the visitors a 3-0 advantage after one period of play.
Seven of the game's eight goals came at one end of the ice and the Sabres were skating in that direction in the second period. They scored at 4:52 and 9:53 and kept the Foresters off the scoreboard in the frame, leaving Lake Forest with a 3-2 lead with 20 minutes to play.
The Foresters went on the power play at the 4:04 mark of the third period and junior forward Amanda Boisjolie netted her fifth score of the season just 24 seconds later. She took a pass along the right boards from junior forward Sydney Simone and blasted it past the goaltender from just inside the blue line to make it a two-goal game again. That was the score for just 78 seconds, as Budde struck for her second goal of the game and Northern Collegiate Hockey Association-leading 16th this season. She was assisted by junior forward Kate Fanning, who leads the team in that category with 10 on the year. Marian added a tally in the final 30 seconds to close out the scoring.
Lake Forest outshot the Sabres 38-28 in the contest and sophomore goaltender Julie Tarantino made 25 saves to earn the victory and improve to 5-0-1 on the season.
The Foresters improved to 13-4-5 overall and 10-1-4 in NCHA play while Marian fell to 5-14-3 overall and 4-9-2 in the league. The victory also clinched home ice for Lake Forest in the quarterfinals of the NCHA Slaats Cup Playoffs, which take place in two weekends.
The Sabres will host the Foresters again Saturday night at 8:00.