LAKE FOREST, Ill. — It has been a tough start to the season for the Finlandia Lions women’s hockey team, to say the least.

The Lions are 0-11-0 on the year, going 0-4-0 at home and 0-7-0 on the road after losing 6-0 and 5-0 against Saint Benedict over the weekend.

While the Lions have been close, losing three one-goal games including both games to Marian on Dec. 7-8, a new villain in their story has stuck the squad, injuries. With a thin roster for a college hockey team as they have just 13 skaters and three goaltenders, any injuries would cause a problem. The Lions have two girls down with significant injuries at the moment, which makes life difficult for the rest of the team.

Especially when you play three games in three nights after a lengthy break.

“We had some long term injuries that are still kind of nagging at us and a few newer injuries,” said Lions coach Matt Marchel. “So this last weekend down in Minneapolis, we had a skeleton crew going. After two and a half weeks, three weeks, off and then playing three games in three days, we expected to kind of burn out and they did. They worked their butts off.”

One positive was getting the opportunity to skate on the larger ice surface at Mariucci Arena, home of the Minnesota Golden Gophers men’s team.

“It was a cool trip because we got to play in Mariucci Arena and a bunch of the girls parents and stuff were hanging around,” Marchel said.

The Lions played the Bennies with just 10 skaters last weekend. In Friday’s game, they gave up two goals in the first, three in the second and one more in the third for the loss.

Saturday, the Lions held the Bennies off the scoresheet for the game’s first 19:22 and then did not surrender a second goal until 9:42 into the second. In the third, the Lions ran out of gas, giving up three tallies over the game’s final frame.

“You do run out of gas,” said Marchel. “It’s almost heartbreaking to see them. They just can’t do it anymore, but we got to learn how to play tighter. You’ve got to learn how to play against teams that are going to be fresh and going to have more legs, going to have more lungs. We learned it the hard way there in those non-conference games.

“Hopefully, moving forward we’ll be able to tighten some things up and then pot some opportunities when we get up ice.”

Marchel was encouraged by the effort he received from his healthy skaters.

“We outskated them, outplayed them, in the first period and half of the second period,” he said. “Then, come third period, you do run out of gas.”

Despite all of this, the Lions sit just four points out of a playoff spot heading into this weekend’s road trip to Lake Forest. The Foresters six third in the NCHA with seven points thanks to a 3-2-1 record in conference play. Lake Forest is coming into the weekend looking to improve on their 6-8-1 overall record as well.

The Foresters come into the weekend having lost twice on the road to No. 6 Wisconsin-Eau Claire, 3-1 and 6-1, before defeating Aurora on Tuesday, 2-1.

Senior Sydney Simone paces the team offensively with six points on the strength of four goals and two assists. Senior Lexi Morgan has a team-high five goals.

Freshman defenseman Karya Dean has been a pleasant surprise, racking up two goals and five points through her first 15 career games.

Senior Jacque Rogers leads the way in goal, going 4-5-0 in nine starts with a 2.87 goals against average and a .910 save percentage.

“We’ve got a grueling schedule coming up here with Lake Forest, Adrian, and we’ve got Superior, St. Scholastica,” said Marchel. “I don’t know if it’s that order, and then Concordia and Trine. There’s no there’s no gimmies, there’s no layups.”

Opening faceoff between the Lions and Foresters is set for 8 p.m. Friday. Saturday’s contest is set for 3 p.m.