The Lake Forest College men's hockey team defeated Fredonia State University 4-0 Sunday afternoon in the championship game of the Skidmore Thanksgiving Tournament in Saratoga Springs, New York.

The Foresters jumped out to the early lead when junior forward Philip Quetell crossed the puck to a charging Trevor Faucher, who redirected the puck into the goal just 13 seconds into the contest. It was the freshman forward's fifth goal of the season.

The lead doubled five minutes later. Justin Ross sent a diagonal pass from behind the Forester blue line to senior forward Jared Gerger as he entered the left side of the offensive zone. Gerger fired his shot past the goalie for his second goal of the year.

Lake Forest out-shot Fredonia 9-2 int he opening period and the Blue Devils had a 12-9 advantage in that category in the second. The score, however, remained 2-0 until late in the third.

Forester senior forward Griffen Sanom gained control of the puck beyond the left side of the Fredonia goal. He quickly spun and found junior forward Logan Kittleson in front of the net, where he scored for the first time this season. Junior forward Andrew Kimball, who won 14 of 21 faceoffs in the contest, was also credited with an assist on the play.

The Blue Devils pulled their goalie with three-and-a-half minutes remaining and Lake Forest finally took advantage with an empty net goal by junior forward Colin Bella with 15.9 seconds on the clock. Bella also scored against Skidmore in Saturday's semifinal and leads the team with seven on the year.

Forester senior goaltender Bobby McCloskey made 22 saves over the course of the final two periods and 24 on the day for his second career shutout. He was named the Skidmore Thanksgiving Invitational Most Valuable Player while Bella, Ross, and Gerger joined him on the all-tournament team.

Lake Forest improved to 4-5-1 while Fredonia fell to 3-8-0 on the season.

The Foresters will have more than a month before their next two games, which will take place in Minnesota. They will play at St. Olaf College at 7:00 p.m. on January 3 and at Saint John's University the following afternoon at 4:00.