Senior forward Austin Aksoy scored 52 seconds into overtime on Saturday to give the Foresters a 3-2 victory over visiting Finlandia University and sweep of their weekend series.
Aksoy went to a knee as he took a pass from junior forward Kyler Magus behind the goal and blasted a shot from just inside the right circle past the Lion goalie. Sophomore forward Kyle Cote, who battled for the puck in the corner and sent it to Magus, also earned an assist on Aksoy's team-high eighth score of the season.
The other two tallies for the Foresters came in the first half of the second period. Trailing 1-0 at the first intermission, Lake Forest tied the game on sophomore forward Will Lebel's sixth goal of the year just 80 seconds into the second stanza. Junior forward Troy Nelson assisted on the score. The home team then took the lead at the 9:26 mark on senior defenseman Connor Duncan's third goal this season. Senior forward Joey Sardina and freshman forward Drew Shields set up the score.
The Lions drew even with just 14.5 seconds on the second period clock and the teams played a scoreless third to force overtime.
Lake Forest junior goaltender Boyd DiClemente made 17 saves to earn his 13th victory of 2019-20, tying Leo Podolsky for the second-highest single-season total in team history.
The Foresters, who entered the weekend ranked 11th in the nation, matched the program's sixth-longest winning streak with their eighth straight triumph. There have been four nine-game winning streaks in school history and the record of 14 was set by the 1977-78 team that finished as the NCAA Division II runner-up. Lake Forest is now 13-2-1 overall and still atop the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association standings at 10-1-0 in league play. Finlandia fell to 3-12-2 overall and 1-9-2 in the league.
After a weekend off from competition, the Foresters will travel to Milwaukee School of Engineering the following Tuesday for a 7:05 p.m. puck drop.
