Lake Forest College Sports Information
December 8, 2007
Contact: Mike Wajerski, SID

Foresters Fall at Home to a Pair of Top-Five Ranked Teams
Team defeated by River Falls on Friday, Stout on Saturday

Mike Kneeland
LAKE FOREST, Ill. - The Lake Forest College men’s hockey team dropped a pair of Northern Collegiate Hockey Association home games over the weekend (December 7-8). The Foresters fell 6-4 to UW-River Falls, the nation’s fourth-ranked team, Friday night and 7-2 to UW-Stout, the fifth-ranked team in the country, on Saturday. Lake Forest is now 1-11-1 overall and 0-6-0 in NCHA play this year.

River Falls led off the scoring on Friday with a power play goal at the 6:37 mark of the opening period. The Forester junior Mike Kneeland (Calgary, Alb./Calgary Royals) tied the score at 10:14 off a pass from sophomore Justin Taylor (Sun Valley, Idaho/Walpole Stars) and junior Matt Schoepflin (Arvada, Colo./Culver Military Academy) gave the home team the lead at 16:44. Senior Blake O’Keefe (Almonte, Ont./Gloucester Rangers) and freshman Tony Razik (Palos Park, Ill./Boston Harbor Waves) assisted on Schoepflin’s first goal of the season. Kneeland extended the Foresters’ lead to 3-1 on a shorthanded goal with 2:04 remaining in the period. O’Keefe assisted on Kneeland’s team-high sixth goal of the year.

O’Keefe made the score 4-1 in favor of the Foresters with his first goal of the season at the 8:52 mark of the second stanza. He was assisted by Kneeland and sophomore Adam Love (Durham, Ont./Elmira Sugar Kings). The Falcons scored a power play goal at 14:06 and trailed 4-2 going into the third period.

River Falls pulled to within one at the 4:42 mark of the third, tied the score at 13:38, scored the game-winner at 18:14, and clinched the victory with an empty net goal with 40 seconds left on the clock.

Stout jumped out to the early lead on Saturday with a shorthanded goal just 86 seconds into the contest. The visitors added a score at 2:48 and a power play goal at 12:22 before Taylor converted a five-on-three opportunity at the 17:06 mark, his first goal of the year. The Foresters trailed 3-1 after 20 minutes.

The home team pulled to within a goal on Love’s fourth score of the season at the 3:29 mark of the second period. He was assisted by Kneeland and freshman Matt Helderman (Huntington, Conn./The Gunnery). The Blue Devils, however, converted a five-on-three power play chance of their own at 5:12 and scored again at 17:30 to lead 5-2 going into the final period.

Stout added insurance goals at 2:49 and 11:55 in the third period.

The Foresters’ next games will be in four weeks (January 4-5) at Middlebury College’s Holiday Classic. Lake Forest will face off in the Friday’s semifinals against Skidmore College at 4:00 EST and will take on either Middlebury or SUNY-Brockport on Saturday at 4:00 or 7:00 p.m. EST.

Lake Forest - River Falls Box Score
Lake Forest - Stout Box Score