The Forester men's hockey team scored three times in each period in a 9-1 victory over Concordia University Wisconsin Friday night. Lake Forest senior forward Luke Swardenski netted a pair of goals and seven of his teammates also lit the lamp for the home team.
Fellow senior Jason McAloon started the scoring three-and-a-half minutes into the contest with freshman forward Charlie Izaguirre and senior forward Mcauley Banning assisting on the play. A trio of seniors combined for the home team's second score at the 9:05 mark. Forward Bobby Barrett finished off the goal and defensemen Charlie Stein and Ben Certo earned assists. After the Falcons scored their only goal of the night while on the power play at 11:21, freshman forward Billy Kent scored an unassisted goal with 4:07 to play in the period. McAloon, Barrett, and Kent each have six goals on the season.
Sophomore forward Jack Lewis also scored for the sixth time this year at the 3:58 mark of the second period. Stein assisted on the goal. The Foresters struck again exactly a minute later when junior forward Alec D'Angelo assisted on fellow junior forward Ian Pichel's fourth goal of the season.
Swardenski scored the Foresters next two goals, one in the final second of the second period and the other, his team-high 11th of the year, at 2:11 in the third. Lewis and senior defenseman Andrew Stein set up both scores, the second on the power play. Swardenski now leads the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association with five power play goals on the season.
Andrew Stein added his third score of the year at 11:17 with Banning and Izaguirre picking up assists. Concordia Wisconsin's head coach pulled his goaltender with 27 seconds on the clock and DeAngelo found the empty net 25 seconds later. It was his third goal of the season.
Lake Forest junior goaltender Leo Podolsky stopped 25 of 26 shots on goal, including 13 in the final period, to raise his record on the year to 10-2-3. He also improved his save percentage to .950 and goals against average to 1.67.
The Foresters are now 8-0-4 in their last dozen games and own the longest unbeaten streak in the country. The team's current run of 12 straight games without a loss also matches the second-longest such streak in school history, trailing only a 14-game winning streak posted by the NCAA Division II runner-up team in 1977-78.
Lake Forest improved its overall record on the year to 10-3-5 and NCHA mark to 8-2-1. Concordia Wisconsin fell to 6-12-0 overall and 2-9-0 in the league.
The same two teams will continue their weekend series and a new tradition Saturday night at 7:00 in Mequon, Wisconsin. The winner of the series will take the inaugural Border Battle and claim the Border Cup traveling trophy. The Foresters will take the cup with a win or tie while the Falcons need a victory in the game and the resulting shootout to capture the trophy.
