The Forester men's hockey team fell behind twice early but eventually poster a convincing 7-3 victory at Marian University Friday night.

Senior defenseman Andrew Nieusma scored one goal and assisted on two others to put the Foresters on top 3-2 by the end of the opening period. After the home team scored first, he took a pass from freshman forward Will Brown just inside the blue line and avoided a pair of Sabres on his way to the middle of the zone. His shot was slowed down by the Marian goaltender but not stopped and it trickled across the line at the 5:11 mark for his first score of the season.

The Sabres regained the lead but a pair of Lake Forest tallies less than a minute apart put the visitors on top for good. Nieusma set up freshman forward Christopher O'Flaherty on the first, caroming a pass off the right boards from the Forester blue line to the right circle in the offensive zone. O'Flaherty caught up to it and backhanded a shot from a difficult angle past the goalie to tie the score.

It took three shots from just in front of the goal for the Foresters to pull ahead. After sophomore forward Max Jaldung and Nieusma had their attempts saved, senior forward Chase Freiermuth poked in his fourth of the year and third in the last two games.

The Foresters added to their lead late in the second period with consecutive goals just 29 seconds apart. The first came from senior forward Colin Bella, who was given enough space above the circles to fire a shot past the goaltender for his 13th career power play goal, matching the progrsam's fifth-highest total since 1996.

Brown struck 29 seconds later, picking up a loose puck between the circles and sending it into the right side of the net. He now has a pair of goals in his Forester career.

A Marian tally in the final minute of the period made it a 5-3 game going into the third.

The first of Lake Forest's two third period goals came from senior forward Philip Quetell at the 6:20 mark. Sophomore forward Trevor Faucher won a faceoff in the right circle and played the puck back to Quetell, whose one-timer flew over the goalie's stick hand and into the net. Quetell now has a pair of tallies on the year.

The Sabres pulled their goaltender with 2:44 remaining and it took just 15 seconds for the Foresters to take advantage. Senior forward Logan Kittleson stole the puck along the right boards and played it up the Jaldung, who hit the empty net from just inside the blue line and tied Bella for the team lead with seven goals this season.

Lake Forest had a slight 28-23 advantage in shots on the night. Between the pipes for the visitors was freshman Luke Szyszka, who made 20 saves and improved to 3-1-0 in his collegiate career.

The Foresters are now 4-6-1 overall and 4-3-0 in the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association. Marian, meanwhile, fell to 2-7-1 overall and 1-6-0 in the league.

The teams will face off again in Lake Forest's Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse Saturday night at 7:00.