The Lake Forest College women's hockey team will be hosting Concordia University Wisconsin this weekend in the quarterfinals of the 2024 Northern Collegiate Hockey Association Slaats Cup Playoffs. The teams will face off in Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse Friday night at 7:00 and Saturday afternoon at 3:00. If they split the two-game series, a decisive 20-minute minigame will be played shortly after the second contest.
The Foresters earned home ice advantage for the series by placing fourth in the NCHA standings at 10-6-0 in league play. The Falcons were fifth at 7-8-1.
The teams met in a home-and-home series in early November with Lake Forest prevailing 4-0 in the opener in Mequon, Wisconsin, and taking game two 4-3 here at home. Lake Forest also hosted and defeated Concordia Wisconsin 3-0 in non-conference play a week-and-a-half later. The Foresters now own a 35-6-3 advantage in the all-time series and are 22-2-2 against the Falcons at home.
The teams also met in Lake Forest in the quarterfinals a year ago with the teams skating to a 3-3 tie in game one and the Foresters advancing after a 6-3 triumph in game two.
Concordia Wisconsin scored 41 goals while Lake Forest had 31 in 16 conference games this season. The Foresters doubled that margin at the other end of the ice, however, surrendering just 29 scores to the Falcon's 49. This weekend's home team has been slightly better on special teams, converting 13.6 percent of power play opportunities and killing 86.6 percent of chances for their opponents. Concordia Wisconsin was at 11.3 and 85.4 percent, respectively.
Falcon Ella Tuccitto leads all players in the series with seven goals and 13 points during NCHA play and her six assists are just one fewer than the total turned in by Brooke Gibson. Annalina Van Hercke has handled the vast majority of the team's goaltending responsibilities and stopped 91.7 percent of conference opponents' shots on goal.
Lake Forest is led offensively by defenseman
Abby Meyer with nine points during league play.
Zara Post and
Tallulah Bryant scored five goals apiece while
Victoria Liu led the squad in assists with six.
Angie Lombardi and
Chelsea Denniss each served as the Foresters' primary goalie for a significant portion of the conference season and combined for a .947 save percentage.
Behind the benches, Lake Forest's Jennifer WIlson is 76-55-10 in six seasons as the team's head coach while Concordia Wisconsin's Steve Fabiilli is 111-123-23 in a decade with the program.
Other quarterfinal series feature NCHA champion Adrian College hosting eighth-place Lawrence University, runner-up St. Norbert College welcoming seventh place Trine University, and sixth place Marian University traveling to third place Aurora University. The four advancing teams will be re-seeded prior to next Saturday's semifinal games, which will be played at the rinks of the top two teams remaining in the tournament. The Slaats Cup Playoff final is scheduled for March 2 and will also be hosted by the highest remaining seed.
