Junior forward Aaron O'Neill scored one goal and assisted on two others but the Foresters were defeated 5-4 in overtime at Adrian College on Saturday.
O'Neill and senior forward Austin Aksoy set up sophomore forward Josh Giacomin on the only goal of the opening period. The power play score at the 6:09 mark was Giacomin's 11th of the year, temporarily tying him with O'Neill for the team lead. The Foresters were out-shot 11-7 in the opening period but led 1-0 after 20 minutes of play.
O'Neill doubled the visitors' lead with another power play goal just 42 seconds into the second with Giacomin and sophomore forward Will Lebel assisting on the play. O'Neill's 12 tallies on the year are tied for the seventh-highest total in the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association.
The Bulldogs finally got on the scoreboard less than a minute-and-a-half later, tied the game at the 6:55 mark, and took the lead on a power play goal in the final 30 seconds of the period. They had an 18-12 advantage in shots on goal in the second stanza.
O'Neill and Aksoy ended the home team's run with the latter netting his ninth goal of the year at 6:18 in the third. Adrian, however, regained the lead just three minutes later.
Lake Forest head coach Patrick Kelliher took a timeout at the 12:00 mark and his team tied the score less than two minutes later on junior defenseman Mark DerManulian's fifth score of the season.
Neither team scored during the final six minutes of regulation but a Lake Forest penalty for too many players on the ice in the final 15 seconds proved costly when Adrian converted the power play opportunity 65 seconds into the overtime period.
The loss dropped the Foresters' overall record on the season to 16-4-1 and the sixth-ranked team in the nation is now 13-3-0 in Northern Collegiate Hockey Association play. Adrian, which entered the week ranked 13th in the country, improved to 13-5-3 overall and 11-3-2 in the league, just two points behind Lake Forest in the standings.
Despite the loss, the Foresters clinched a spot in the NCHA Harris Cup Playoffs when Concordia University Wisconsin was defeated by Marian University.
Lake Forest will host Aurora University next Friday night at 7:00 and the teams will play again at Aurora at the same time on Saturday.
