Despite leading for more than 50 minutes, the Lake Forest College women's hockey team was defeated 2-1 in overtime by the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire at home on Saturday.
The Foresters took the lead just 79 seconds into the contest. Sophomore forward Lexi Nguyen won a faceoff in the right circle and pulled the puck back to junior forward Stokli Ashcraft, who fired a shot between the goalie's legs and into the goal. It was Ashcraft's fourth score of the season.
Lake Forest junior goaltender Hannah Turnage stopped the first 36 shots on goal she faced from the nation's third-ranked team. The Blugolds, however, finally tied the score at 13:22 in the third period on their eighth power play opportunity of the contest.
The Foresters took two more penalties in regulation and another in overtime. The last infraction set up Eau Claire's game-winner with 1:02 on the clock in the five-minute extra frame.
With 43 saves, Turnage made at least 40 for the fifth time this season. Her eight-game total for the year is 300 and her save percentage rose to .929.
Lake Forest is now 2-6-0 and Eau Claire 10-0-0.
The Foresters will put their 2-0-0 Northern Collegiate Hockey Association record on the line against visiting Finlandia University next weekend. The teams will play Friday night at 7:30 and at 4:30 Saturday afternoon.
