ANGOLA, Ind. – The Trine University men's hockey, currently ranked fifth in the nation by USCHO.com's coaches poll, picked up another Northern Collegiate Hockey Association (NCHA) victory, defeating visiting Lake Forest College 4-2.
The Thunder played a nearly perfect first period, building a comfortable 2-0 lead for the first intermission. They struck first in the seventh minute of the contest, just five seconds into the first power play of the game.
Michael DiPietra won the faceoff back to
Sean Henry who wasted little time making a pass to his partner at the top of the far circle.
Josh Wright was ready for the chance and fired a hard shot into the back of the net.
Ten minutes later the team added their second goal, this time in transition.
Alexander Babich came up with a loose puck in the defensive zone skating just past center ice before making a short pass to his left where
Logan Furstenau was following him. Furstenau battled through a defender on the blueline, making his contest pass back to Babich who was racing into the far circle. One last pass went across the face of the finding
Jack Cooper who poked it home to the near side.
Trine made it a three-goal deficit early in the third period, again making short work of a power play chance. This time Babich won the faceoff finding Cooper along the near side boards. Cooper passed the puck to the top of the far circle where Furstenau was ready for the slapshot into the back of the net.
The Foresters finally tallied a goal of their less than a minute later, taking advantage of their own power play. The 3-1 score held into the second intermission.
The Thunder scored their final goal in the fifth minute of the final stanza. With both teams down a man,
Drew Welsch wrestled the puck away from the defense behind the Lake Forest net. He followed up with a short pass to the front of the net where
Tyler Blanchard was trailing the play. The senior was able to backhand the puck between the goalie's pads for the goal.
The Foresters scored once more at the middle mark of the period, to make the score 4-2. From there the Thunder defense, led by
Cristian Wong-Ramos in net, closed out the win. Wong-Ramos finished the game with 15 saves.
The Thunder improve to 15-2-1 overall and 9-1-1 in NCHA play. They will look to finish off the sweep tomorrow, Saturday, January 25. The game, which will be followed by the team's annual senior night festivities, is set to start at 4 p.m.
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