Box Score LAKE FOREST, Ill. – The men's hockey team needs to keep winning if they want to close out their fifth straight MCHA regular season title as they entered Saturday just two points ahead of MSOE. After two periods the visiting Bulldogs were staring down a 3-2 deficit and whatever adjustments made by the Bulldog coaching staff paid off as Adrian scored three times in the third for a 5-3 road win over Lake Forest.
Five different players lit the lamp for Adrian who improved to 15-5-1 overall and 13-2-1 in the MCHA. Lake Forest fell to 3-18 overall and 3-13 in the MCHA. Adrian fell behind 3-2 after two periods due to going to the penalty box. Lake Forest scored two power play goals back-to-back in the second stanza seven minutes apart. The Foresters scored the only goals of the second as Ben Finney and Luke Swardenski each scored on a 5-on-4 opportunity. Thomas Bark had an assist on each of the goals.
Dan Barczuk and Josh Cousineau scored in the first period to give AC a 2-1 lead after 20 minutes. After trailing 3-2 after 40 minutes it was three straight even strength goals by the Bulldogs. Lukas Ciotti tied the game at the 3:21 mark for his fifth tally of the season with helpers going to Zach Wilson and Kevin Balas. Defenseman Ryan Gieseler scored the game-winner just 27 seconds later for his third goal of the season. Jordan Watts and Zach Graham assisted on the winner. Graham added one more goal for good measure at 6:46 from Justin Basso for his team-leading 12th goal of the season.
Adrian fired 45 shots on goal and Brendan Sullivan stopped 40 of those shots. Scott Shackell picked up his 10th win in net making 37 saves including 17 in the final period. Adrian went 1-for-1 on the power play after Roberto Caparelli went to the box for a five-minute major cross checking penalty in the first period. Lake Forest went 2-for-7 with the man advantage. The Bulldogs swept the season series against Lake Forest and are 12-0 all-time against the Foresters.
