Lake County Gazette

WIth a 6-3 overall record, Lake Forest College (LFC) men’s hockey team head coach Patrick Kelliher told the Lake County Gazette that he is happy with the way the Foresters started the season.

“I think it’s been a pretty good start to the year,” Kelliher said. “We lost seven seniors last year and we want to make sure guys step up and fill in a role. But for the most part, it’s been a good start.”

LFC started the season Oct. 27 against University of Wisconsin-Superior. Freshman Aaron O’Neill made a big statement in his first collegiate game, scoring the opening goal of the game in the first period. The Foresters went on to win the game 4-2. In addition to O’Neill’s goal, Bron Loiselle, Joe Sardina and Drew Cleereman also scored for Lake Forest.

The Foresters dropped the second game of the year, falling 3-2 in overtime to the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. George Gerasimou scored the first goal of the game for Lake Forest midway through the first period. John Nugent scored the second goal, but the Foresters fell in overtime.

Lake Forest lost the next game of the year as well, falling 5-2 against Northland College. In the first two periods of the game, the teams were evenly matched. Northland scored a goal in the first period and the Foresters tied it up with a power-play goal by Davis DeKorte in the second period. However, in the third period, Northland ran away with the game scoring four unanswered goals. Gerasimou scored the Foresters only goal in the third frame.

After back-to-back losses, Lake Forest found its form and won five games in a row before dropping a game to St. Mary’s University of Minnesota. One area that Kelliher thought his team improved on during its winning streak was on the power play.

“Early on this year our power play was kind of struggling but I think we’ve got it on track the last couple of games,” Kelliher said. “We have had something like a power-play goal in the last three or four games. That’s something we’ve been spending some extra time on. With special teams, you can always look to improve on that.”

Throughout the first half of the season, Gerasimou and Billy Kent have been key in the Foresters wins. Gerasimou is a senior from Charlotte, North Carolina, and has scored three goals so far this year. Kent has scored two goals and recorded seven assists. Forester goalie Louis-Philippe De Courcy has also had a good start to the season. He currently has a .941 save percentage and a record of 4-1.

In the second half of the season, Lake Forest will focus on conference play. Kelliher said the team has some lofty goals for the conference season.

“Our expectation is to be competing for a conference championship,” he said. “We compete in one of the best Division III leagues in the country and the competition is really stiff. We’ve talked about it since the start of the year that our goal is to be playing for a conference championship. It’s not going to be an easy task, but that’s really how we’re going to judge our season.”

For more information about the team or to view a full schedule, visit www.goforesters.com.