The Forester men's hockey team scored a pair of late goals to come out on top of a 3-1 decision in Friday night's series opener at Trine University.

The score was tied at one when Lake Forest senior forward Josh Giacomin was called for a cross-checking penalty with 7:13 remaining in the third period. The visitors were able to kill the penalty and, just as Giacomin exited the penalty box, an errant pass back to a Thunder defenseman greeted him at the red line. The Forester captain took advantage of the breakaway opportunity and backhanded the puck under the Trine goaltender for his team-high 10th goal of the season.

Giacomin also leads Lake Forest in assists and he added two to that total on Friday. He and junior forward Tyler Nielsen set up sophomore forward Ben Perkins at the 8:30 mark of the opening period. The 5-on-3 power play goal was scored just nine seconds after the home team's second penalty in less than a minute.

Perkins also scored the final goal of the contest with just 17 seconds remaining. He took a pass from Giacomin on the right side of the neutral zone with nothing in the way of an empty net and filled it for his eighth score of the season. Freshman forward Tyler Buonopane was also credited with an assist on the play.

Lake Forest junior goaltender Nick Wiencek stopped 21 of 22 shots on goal on the night, including 18 while the game was tied, to earn the victory and even his record on the year at 6-6-1.

The Foreters improved to 7-13-2 overall and 5-8-2 in Northern Collegiate Hockey Association play and secured a spot in the eight-team NCHA Harris Cup Playoffs. Trine fell to 14-8-0 overall and 8-7-0 in the league.

The same two teams will face off again at Trine Saturday afternoon at 4:00 (ET).