The Lake Forest College men's hockey team defeated Hamilton College 5-3 on Sunday in the semifinals of the 50th Annual Codfish Bowl at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Forester freshman forward Billy Kent scored a pair of goals, including his first career game-winner.
Kent's first goal of the game broke a 2-2 tie a minute and 43 seconds into the third period. Fellow freshman forward Shawn Nelson assisted on the score. Hamilton tied the score just 36 seconds later but Kent lit the lamp again at the 15:42 mark to put the Foresters ahead for good. His fourth goal of the season was set up by senior forward Bobby Barrett and defenseman Andrew Stein. Lake Forest closed out the scoring when sophomore forward Jimmy Cusan found the empty net with 65 seconds to play in the contest. Barrett also assisted on that score, Cusan's second of the year.
Lake Forest actually took the lead four times in the game, the first on senior Charlie Stein's second score of the season just two minutes and 16 seconds into the opening period. Stein was assisted by Nelson and senior defenseman Ben Certo. It turned out to be the only goal of the period.
After, Hamilton drew even at the 4:44 mark of the second period, Certo converted a power play opportunity at 13:38 to put Lake Forest back on top. He was assisted by Charlie Stein and sophomore forward Jack Lewis. The Continentals tied the score again with 2:04 remaining in the period.
The Foresters were outshot 11-7 in the first period and 19-11 in the second. Both teams put 10 shots on goal in the final 20 minutes.
Lake Forest junior goaltender Leo Podolsky stopped 37 of 40 shots on goal in the contest to extend his and the team's winning streak to five games. Podolsky is now 7-2-2 with a .948 save percentage on the year.
The Foresters will face off against Connecticut College in Monday's Codfish Bowl Championship Game at 4:00 p.m. (EST).
