Senior goaltender George Argiropoulos recorded his third shutout of the season, stopping 31 shots on goal in the Foresters' 3-0 win over Aurora University at home Saturday night.
The Foresters started the scoring with 4:22 to play in the first period. Freshman forward Josh Giacomin put back a rebound off a drive to the net by sophomore forward Aaron O'Neill. Senior forward Bron Loiselle also assisted on Giacomin's seventh goal of the season overall and sixth on home ice. The Foresters held a 1-0 lead and a 14-13 advantage in shots after the first period.
An even strength goal from sophomore forward Joey Sardina at 9:36 of the middle frame increased the home team's lead to 2-0. Senior defenseman Quinton Wunder broke the puck out of the zone, finding the Red Oak, Texas, native up the left wall and Sardina rushed down the ice and lasered one passed the Aurora netminder. The score was Sardina's 10th of the year and seventh in his career against Aurora. The shots were limited in the middle period with the Foresters outshooting the Spartans 8-5 in the frame for a grand total of 22-18 after 40 minutes of play.
The Spartans had four power play opportunities in the final period but could not capitalize. In fact, it would be the Foresters striking with a man down when O'Neill scored off a beautiful cross-zone pass from Loiselle, making it a 3-0 Forester lead just 2:40 into the period. Despite being outshot in the final frame 13-5, the Foresters were perfect on the penalty kill all night, killing off all seven Spartan opportunities and finishing off the 3-0 victory.
Lake Forest finished the regular season with an overall record of 11-8-6 and and a mark of 9-5-4 in Northern Collegiate Hockey Association play. Aurora dropped to 11-13-1 and 8-9-1 in the league. The same two teams will meet at Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse next weekend for the quarterfinals of the NCHA Harris Cup Playoffs. The puck will drop at 7:00 both Friday and Saturday night.
by Cam McGuire
