The Lake Forest College men's hockey team erased a 3-1 deficit and defeated visiting Saint Mary's University 4-3 in overtime Friday night in the season opener for both teams.
The Foresters scored the game's first goal four-and-a-half minutes into the contest when senior forward Cullen Kane found junior forward Josh Norman in front of the net for the latter's first score since transferring to the College.
The Cardinals rallied with three consecutive power play goals, the first with 6:08 remaining in the opening period and the second with just 29.4 seconds on the clock. Another score with a man advantage early in the second gave the visitors a 3-1 lead.
Lake Forest outshot St. Mary's 18-9 in the second period and closed back to within a goal at the 8:41 mark. Junior defensemen Erik Nilsson denied the Cardinals' attempt to clear the zone and passed to senior forward Will Lebel, who skated in from the right side and slipped the puck under the goalie for the score.
After his team failed to convert on any of its first five power play opportunities, Lake Forest Head Coach Sean O'Malley, who was making his head coaching debut, used his time out with 9:20 remaining in regulation and a Saint Mary's player headed to the penalty box. The moved paid of 90 seconds later when Norman took another pass from Kane just inside the blue line, charged in and ripped a shot past the goaltender to tie the game.
The score remained 3-3 throughout the rest of the period and the teams skated 3-on-3 in overtime. Freshman forward Noah Furman took advantage of the extra space, going end-to-end and sending a shot past the glove of the Saint Mary's goalie for his first career goal.
Forester junior goaltender Carson Poulin stopped 23 of 26 shots on goal, including the final 15 he faced, to earn the victory.
The same two teams will face off again in Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse Saturday afternoon at 3:00.
