The Lake Forest College men's hockey team dropped a 5-2 decision to Aurora University at home Saturday night in what turned out to be the Foresters' season finale.

Lake Forest took the lead twice in the game, first at the 11:33 mark on sophomore forward Chase Freiermuth's team-high 14th goal of the season. Freiermuth redirected a shot from junior defenseman Ryan Antonakis past the Spartan goalie with just four seconds remaining on the Foresters' first power play opportunity of the contest. 

Aurora answered two minutes later, however, and the score remained 1-1 for the rest of the period,

The home team pulled ahead again three minutes into the second on sophomore forward Andrew Kimball's first goal of the season. The play began with Tyler Buonopane stealing the puck near the Foresters' blue line and skating up the ice. His slap shot was wide to the right but came back out to fellow junior forward Donny Borgula, who deflected it in front of the goal for Kimball to push in and make the score 2-1.

The visitors drew even again at the 6:39 mark and took the lead for good at 8:46. They made it a 4-2 game 20 minutes later and tacked on an empty net goal late to account for the final score.

Lake Forest out-shot the Spartans 17-8 in the final period and 37-36 on the night.

It was the Senior Night and forwards Tyler Nielsen, Ben Perkins, Josh Norman, and Shane Hathaway were honored along with team manger Dylan Giacin before their final collegiate game.

The loss meant the Foresters needed help from elsewhere in the league to qualify for the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association Harris Cup Playoffs. That assistance did not come and Lake Forest finished 7-18-0 overall and 4-12-0 in the NCHA play. Aurora is now 13-11-1 overall and finished fourth in the conference at 10-6-0.