The Forester men's hockey team, ranked 13th in the nation, dropped a 6-2 decision at home to #4 Adrian College on Saturday. It was the final regular season home game for nine Forester seniors.
Three of those seniors factored in the scoring as the home team finished the first period with a 2-1 lead. After the Bulldogs netted the game's first goal at 4:09, forward Luke Swardenski tied the score at the 11:01 mark. It was his team-high 13th goal of the year. The Foresters then took the lead when forward Jason McAloon assisted on fellow forward Mcauley Banning's second score this season at 16:52.
Adrian evened the score just 38 seconds into the second period and took the lead at the 11:25 mark. The visitors added a pair of insurance goals in the final 20 seconds before intermission. The Bulldogs also scored the only goal of the third period at 5:13.
Lake Forest had an 8-6 advantage in shots on goal in the opening period but were out-shot 18-8 in the second and 12-8 in the third.
The loss dropped the Foresters' overall record to 14-6-5 and they finished the season with a Northern Collegiate Hockey Association mark of 12-5-1. Adrian is now 19-3-3 overall and finished as the league's regular season champion at 16-1-1 in conference play.
Lake Forest will host the College of St. Scholastica in an NCHA Harris Cup quarterfinal series next weekend. The teams are scheduled to face off at 7:00 Saturday night and again Sunday at 5:00 p.m.
