Sophomore defenseman Jordan Trapp recorded her first career hat trick and Lake Forest added five more goals in an 8-1 victory over Trine University Friday night in game one of the teams' quarterfinal series in the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association Slaats Cup Playoffs.
Trapp, who entered the contest with three goals on the season, lit the lamp once in each period with her first tally going down as the official game-winning goal. Senior forward Amy Budde's unassisted score at 4:41 in the opening period started the scoring and Trapp made the score 2-0 with a power play goal at 9:13. She was assisted by junior defenseman Julia Unterseher and forward Kristina Bellomo.
Trine converted a power play opportunity at 11:49 and the Foresters went on the penalty kill again just four seconds later. Not only did the home team keep the Thunder out of the goal, but Budde struck again at 13:39 with her 20th goal of the year, becoming just the sixth player in program history to reach that milestone. Junior forward Sydney Simone assisted on Budde's second short-handed goal of the season and the fourth of her career. Despite being outshot 17-10 in the game's first 20 minutes, Lake Forest took a 3-1 lead into the locker room after the first period.
Both teams put 10 shots on goal in the second but Lake Forest was the only one to score, finding the back of the net three times. The first two goals of the middle stanza occurred just eight seconds apart with junior forward Maddie Davis netting her fifth of the season at the 8:50 mark and Trapp scoring for the second time of the night at 8:58. Budde set up the first and freshman forward Abigail Tucci the second. Tucci then made the score 6-1 with her second goal of the year at 11:26.
Trapp completed the hat trick with an unassisted goal at the 4:15 mark of the third period. After setting up Tucci's score to close out the second period, Forester junior defenseman Amanda Boisjolie accounted for the final tally of the night with 6:33 remaining in the game. She joined Trapp with six goals on the year.
Trine outshot the home team 10-8 in the final period but each attempt from the Thunder was turned away by Forester junior goaltender Jacque Rogers, who finished the night with 34 saves and became the program's career leader in victories with 37. Rogers is now 10-6-4 this season and ranked sixth in the nation with a .954 save percentage and 10th with a goals against average of 1.20.
The Foresters improved to 15-6-5 this season and Trine fell to 10-12-2. The same two teams will face off in game two of the series Saturday afternoon at 3:00. A Lake Forest win or tie would send the team to the semifinals of the NCHA Slaats Cup Playoffs while the Thunder need a victory and a win in the 20-minute minigame that would follow the contest to advance.