The Lake Forest College men's hockey team defeated visiting College of St. Scholastica, the 12th-ranked team in the nation, 1-0 Friday night. Forester junior goaltender Leo Podolsky made 36 saves for his second shutout in the last three contests.
Podolsky stopped 11 shots on goal in the opening period as the Saints out-shot the home team 11-9 during the game's first 20 minutes.
Lake Forest came out strong in the second period, outshooting St. Scholastica 5-1 during the first four minutes. The only goal of the night was scored by senior Jason McAloon at the 4:25 mark. He beat the Saints defense up the right side of the ice and blasted the puck past the St. Scholastica goalie and just insed the right post for his second goal of the season. The visitors played with much greater intensity and averaged more than a shot on goal per minute the rest of the period but Podolsky stopped each of them to preserve the narrow lead.
Despite having to kill a five-minute penalty, the Foresters had control of the puck far more often in the third and put a dozen shots on goal to the Saints' eight in the period. The St. Scholastica goalie headed to the bench in favor of an extra attacker with 41 seconds remaining in the period but Podolsky turned away the visitors' final shot on goal to secure his fourth career shutout.
Podolsky is now 5-2-2 on the season with a 1.68 goals against average and .949 save percentage.
The Foresters improved to 5-3-2 overall and 4-2-1 in Northern Collegiate Hockey Association play this season. St. Scholastica fell to 7-2-0 overall and 6-2-0 in the league. The same two teams will face off again in Alumni Memorial Field House Saturday at 5:00 p.m.
