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Lake Forest’s offense breaks out, Finlandia suffers sweep

Denia Bent/For the Gazette Finlandia’s Cassidy Kerzman takes a faceoff during a game against Lake Forest Saturday at the Houghton County Arena.

HANCOCK — The Finlandia Lions women’s hockey team fell to Lake Forest on Saturday, 6-1, at the Houghton County arena to drop to 0-6 in NCHA play and 0-7 on the season. After a close game Friday that saw the Foresters come away with a 2-1 decision, the Lions struggled their way through a tough second period saw the visitors put the game out of reach.

Lions coach Matt Marchel was happy to see his team stay competitive throughout the contest, despite the final score.

“We had a few breakdowns in the second that they scored on unfortunately, (but) we defended okay for most of the game,” he said. “(We knew) that they were going to have the puck a lot and we were going to be defending a lot. We did a pretty good job.

“We were in that game for 55 minutes (and) that’s a national tournament-contending team. We’ve got to take the positives out of it.”

Since junior goaltender Annah Smiddy made 46 saves in Friday’s loss, Marchel called upon junior Sarah Gundry for Saturday’s contest. She made 17 of her 41 saves in the opening frame.

The game remained scoreless into the second period when the Foresters Amy Budde found the back of the net at 5:05 with an assist form Amanda Boisjolie.

The Lions needed just at 14 seconds to respond thanks to a goal from junior winger Bella Abear.

Freshman Taylor Pingrey, who leads the team in scoring with five points, all assists, and sophomore Kaytlin Richardson assisted on the goal.

Budde and Jordan Trapp struck two minutes apart to put the Foresters ahead for good midway through the contest.

Lake Forest took advantage of things late in the third period to pad their advantage as Julia Unterseher, Boisjolie and Maddie Davis all scored 2:14 apart to secure the win.

Despite a slow first period where they had shots, but nothing found its way past Gundry, Lake Forest coach Jennifer Wilson was happy to see the shift in momentum in the second and third periods.

“I think we kind of had a bit of a slow start (being) a little bit hesitant from (Friday), she said. “We had the girls in the hallway talking about fast releases, so I think that was the major difference today and why we got some goals.

“I think it started to shift, especially halfway through the third (period). The girls started connecting more and (we) started wearing the lines down. (The Lions) still had some great breakaways that kept us on our toes.”

Marchel thought his team held their own defensively and is looking for his team to use their Thanksgiving break before traveling to Wisconsin to play Marian on Nov. 30 to get a rest and find some confidence in practice.

“Our defensive side of the puck is looking good,” he said. “We just need to be smarter with everything. We’ve got to realise that we’re playing a complete hockey game. We’re not just out there for the five feet in front of us. We’re playing for the whole game.

“I think (we need) a break from everything (that happened) this weekend. It’s a good time for a break after you play Lake Forest.”

Scoring

LFC 0 3 3 – 6

FU 0 1 0 – 1

First period

None

Second period

1, LFC, Amy Budde (Amanda Boisjolie), 5:05

2, FU, Bella Abear (Taylor Pingrey, Kaytlin Richardson), 5:19

3, LFC, Budde (Sydney Simone, Jordan Trapp), 8:08

4, LFC, Trapp (Budde), 10:08

Third period

5, LFC, Julia Unterseher (Maddie Davis), 16:42

6, LFC, Boisjolie (Simone, Kate Fanning), 17:07

7, LFC, Davis (Fanning), 18:56

Saves

LFC, Rogers 4 2 8 – 14

FU, Gundry 17 11 13 – 41

Power plays

LFC: 0/1; FU: 0/2

Penalties

LFC: 2/4; FU: 1/2

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