Sophomore forward Joey Sardina opened the scoring in the first, but the Foresters would settle for a 2-2 tie with visiting Northland College Friday night.
In the opening frame it was back and forth action from the start. The Foresters struck first with junior forward Austin Aksoy collecting the puck outside of the blue line and finding a streaking Sardina, who got around a defender and beat the goalie with a backhand shot at 6:54. It was the first score of the season for Sardina.
Lake Forest was 0-for-3 on the power play in the first and surrendered a short-handed tally with just under four minutes to go in the period. Shots were 14-10 in favor of the home team after 20 minutes of play.
Shortly after a killing a penalty, Northland took a 2-1 lead at 11:41 in the second, burying a rebound right in front of the blue paint on a third opportunity.
While neither team was able to convert a power play opportunity, both finished with a short-handed goal after Forester sophomore forward Kyler Magus, wide open in the high slot, smacked a shot past the goaltender at 18:20. His first goal of the season came off a beautiful feed from senior forward Vito Aluia from behind the goal line. The score was 2-2 after 40 minutes of play and it remained that way for the rest of the contest.
Both teams were unable to capitalize on opportunities in the third and Northland had an 8-4 advantage in shots on goal in the period. Despite killing a penalty during the first minute-and-a-half of overtime, the Foresters accounted for the only two shots on goal in the extra period.
Lake Forest senior Louis-Philippe De Courcy made 29 saves on the night and raised his save percentage on the season to .931.
Lake Forest is now 0-1-2 and Northland 0-1-1 after the first Northern Collegiate Hockey Association game of the year for both teams.
The Foresters will host College of St. Scholastica in another league game Saturday at 4:00 p.m.
