The Forester women's hockey team was defeated 5-3 Saturday afternoon at St. Norbert College, the 11th-ranked team in the nation.
Lake Forest took the early lead on a score from sophomore forward
Tallulah Bryant less than four minutes into the contest. She fired a shot past the goaltender from just above the circles for her second score of the season.
It remained a 1-0 game until the 11:05 mark when Forester junior forward
Macy Gehrke netted the first of her two goals in the contest. She took a rebound and lifted a shot over the goalie's blocker to double the visitors' advantage.
Lake Forest out-shot the home team 10-3 in the first period and was still ahead 2-0 when it ended.
The Green Knights had a 10-8 advantage in that category in the second and scored twice in the first five minutes to tie the game.
The score remained 2-2 for more than 20 minutes of game time until Gehrke regained the lead for the Foresters at 7:32 in the third. She retrieved the puck in the left corner of the offensive zone and skated in from the wall to the middle of the circle, where she blasted a shot over the goalie's shoulder and into the net. It was her sixth goal of the season and she is now tied for the team lead with 16 points.
The lead was short-lived, however, as the Knights tied the game again just 76 seconds later and took their first lead of the day with 8:26 remaining. The Foresters pulled their goaltender with just under a minute to play and St. Norbert took advantage with an empty net goal with 33.3 seconds on the clock.
The loss dropped Lake Forest's overall record to 10-10-3 and Northern Collegiate Hockey Association mark to 6-7-3. St. Norbert, meanwhile, improved to 18-4-1 and remain atop the standings at 14-1-1 in the league.
The Foresters will close out the regular season against Milwaukee School of Engineering next weekend. They will face off in Milwaukee Friday night at 7:00 and Lake Forest will celebrate Senior Day the following afternoon at 2:00. Victories in both game would give the Foresters home-ice advantage in the quarterfinals of the NCHA Slaats Cup Playoffs the following weekend.
