The Lake Forest College men's hockey team staged a pair of comebacks and did not have enough time for a third in Friday night's 5-4 loss to visiting Marian University.
Both teams scored in the game's first four minutes, Marian at the 1:24 mark and the Foresters at 3:23. The tying goal was the second of the season for senior defenseman Scotty Nicholson, who also set up a score later in the contest. Nicholson was honored along with fellow seniors Vaughan Bamford, David Cohen, Brendan Coughlin, Carson Poulin, Drew Shields, and Nick Wiencek before their final career home game.
Freshman forward Griffen Sanom provided the home team with its only lead of the night midway through the opening period. It was his fifth goal of the year.
Lake Forest took a 2-1 lead into the first intermission but lost that advantage on the night's only power play goal just 17 seconds into the second period. The Sabres took the lead again at the 5:14 mark and added to it at 8:51.
The second comeback began less than two minutes later on sophomore forward Jared Gerger's eighth score of the season. He was assisted by Nicholson and junior forward Ben Perkins, who knotted the score at four with 12:27 to play in the third. Gerger and sophimore defenseman Matteas Derraugh assisted on the fourth of the year for Perkins.
The contest appeared to be headed to overtime but Marian netted the game-winner with 49.5 seconds on the clock. The Foresters pulled their goaltender for the final 20 seconds but were unable to tie the score again.
Lake Forest out-shot the visitors in each period and put 33 shots on goal to the Sabres' 27 on the night.
The Foresters fell to 9-11-4 overall and 6-8-3 in Northern Collegiate Hockey Association play and will be the #7 seed in the NCHA Harris Cup Playoffs, which will begin next weekend. Marian is now 11-11-2 overall and 8-7-2 in the league.
The teams will face off again in Saturday's regular season finale in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. The contest will begin at 7:00 p.m.
