Lake Forest College Sports Information
February 19, 2005
Contact: Mike Wajerski, SID

Lake Forest Reaches NCHA Semifinals with Sweep at Stevens Point
Foresters win road playoff series for first time since joining NCHA

 Greg Ihnken had his first career two-goal game on Saturday.
STEVENS POINT, WI - The Forester men’s hockey team prevailed 4-3 Friday evening (February 18) and 6-1 Saturday (February 19) night at UW-Stevens Point in the quarterfinals of the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association playoffs. Lake Forest evened its record on the season at 13-13-1 and won a road playoff series for the first time since joining the NCHA in 1992. The Pointers fell to 12-12-3 on the year and failed to reach the league semifinals for the first time since 1996.

A power play goal, Forester junior Cory Wilson’s (Calgary, AB/Calgary Royals) 10th score of the season gave the visitors the early lead at the 4:55 mark of Friday’s first period. Freshman Brian Lee (Toronto, ON/Calgary Royals) scored second of the year at 10:12 and junior Troy Lother (Beach Park, IL/Green Bay Gamblers) added his sixth at 15:08 to put Lake Forest ahead by three.

The home team closed the gap to two goals with a power play score at 16:38 in the first and pulled to within one at 8:21 in the second.

Senior Robin Charest (Cabano, QC/Hebron Academy) scored what turned out to be the game winner at 12:20 in the third. The Pointers lit the lamp with 5:50 remaining but would get no closer.

Senior Joel Cameron (Markham, ON/Milton Merchants) stopped 45 of 48 shots on goal for the Foresters and is now the program’s all-time leader with 1,882 saves in his career. Classmate Cody Brown (Calgary, AB/Calgary Canucks) tallied 34 saves and surrendered just one goal in Saturday’s victory.

Charest started the scoring on Saturday at the 10:07 mark of the opening period, but Stevens Point pulled even with 2:03 remaining before the first intermission.

The Foresters pulled ahead once again on sophomore Greg Ihnken’s (Peoria, IL/Chicago Freeze) power play goal at the 6:18 mark of the second stanza. Senior Ryan Panet (Markham, ON/Wexford Raiders) scored for the fifth time this season at 14:45 and Charest added his second of the game, third of the weekend, and 14th of the year at 18:03.

Ihnken lit the lamp for the sixth time this season at 4:22 in the third and sophomore Tyler Canal () tacked on his team-high 16th of the year at 10:53 to close out the scoring.

Lake Forest will travel to St. Norbert College for a single-game semifinal match-up at 7:00 next Saturday (February 26) night. The Green Knights are currently the top-ranked Division III team in the nation.

Friday Box Score
Saturday Box Score