D-III West Hockey Weekend Wrap-Up: Foresters stun reigning national champs

Lake Forest pulled off a win over reigning national champion Adrian on Saturday. (Trevor Nielsen)

Matteas Derraugh and David Cohen stepped up in a big way for Lake Forest Saturday night.

Both players scored twice to propel the Foresters to an upset win over Adrian, which came into the night ranked third in the nation in the USCHO NCAA Division III men’s poll.

A wild first period ended with Derraugh scoring his second goal of the game and lifting the Foresters to a 3-2 lead after one.

Lake Forest never looked back. Cohen scored a first-period goal as well and closed out the game with a goal as the Foresters improved to 7-8-4 overall and 4-5-3 in the NCHA.

More importantly, they collected four conference points in the series in knocking off Adrian, which is 14-3-2 and 8-3-1.

Nick Wiencek made 39 saves in the victory. He stopped the last 26 shots he faced.

The win came on the heels of a 4-4 tie with the reigning national champions on Friday. Lake Forest held a 3-0 in the first after goals by Jared Gerger, Collin Bella and Justin Ross, and were up 4-1 late in the second after a goal by Chase Sencer. But the Bulldogs battled back to forge a tie. Hunter Wendt scored the game-tying goal at the 9:47 mark of the third. Adrian won the shootout for the extra NCHA point.

Shutout win for the Sabres

Marian not only got its second shutout win of the season, but the Sabres did it against one of the nation’s best teams, stunning then No. 9 St. Nobert 1-0 on Saturday.

Marian is 2-1-1 against nationally ranked opponents this season and held a 30-28 advantage in shots.

Daunte Fortner scored the lone goal of the night, punching in his own rebound at the 12:52 mark. 

Marian improved to 7-10-2 overall and 4-6-2 in the NCHA. St. Norbert dropped to 11-6-2 and 9-3-1.

The Sabres and Green Knights played to a 4-4 tie on Friday and won the shootout for an extra point.

Marian trailed 3-2 after two periods but battled back in the third to forge the tie. Jaymes Knee scored twice in the win for the Sabres. He also added an assist.

Lions win thriller

Finlandia hasn’t had an easy season, but the Lions came away with a overtime win against Lawrence Saturday in NCHA play.

The Lions prevailed 6-5 after Nate Holm scored less than two minutes into the OT period to lift Finlandia to its first win over Lawrence since January of 2019.

Ahead 4-1 after two periods of play, the Lions were outscored 4-1 in the final period as the game went into OT.

James Eng and Owen Schmidt scored twice for the Lions. Both players added an assist as well as Finlandia improved to 3-14-1 overall and 2-9 in the conference. Lawrence is 3-14-2 and 2-9-1.

Gusties knock off Auggies

The wait is over for Gustavus. The Gusties picked up their first MIAC  win of the year on Saturday with a 4-3 win over nationally ranked Augsburg.

Gustavus improved to 3-14-2 overall and is 1-8-1 in the conference. Augsburg fell to 9-7-1 overall and 5-3 in the conference.

Stanislav Daneav scored the game-winning goal for the Gusties, who won despite being outshot 26-15. Jackson Hjelle made 23 saves. The win in MIAC play is the first for the Gusties since the 2019-20 season. That winless streak against conference opponents was at 22 games before Saturday’s win.

Patrick Wyers scored the first goal of his career in the win and Kyle Heffron and Jack Kubitz also scored goals in the win.

Saints take down Oles

St. Scholastica won both of its games against St. Olaf over the weekend, capping the series with a 4-2 victory. The Saints won Friday’s game 7-4 and are now atop the MIAC standings.

In the finale, St. Scholastica scored three times in the second period to set the tone for the win.

Arkhip Ledenkov scored twice as did Carsen Richels while Filimon Ledenkov tallied four assists. Jack Bostedt made 30 saves as the Saints finished off the sweep. They are now 10-5-2 overall and are unbeaten in the MIAC with a 7-0-1 mark. The Oles are 11-7-1 overall and 5-5 in the conference.

Stout stays hot

UW-Stout ran its win streak to five games on Saturday as it completed a sweep of Northland.

The Blue Devils won 4-2 on Saturday after coming through with a 4-0 win on Friday.

In Saturday’s game, the Blue Devils found themselves down 2-1 after two periods after Taylor Ewing scored twice for the Lumberjacks.

Peyton Hart scored twice in the third to lead the rally as UW-Stout came out on top. Dylan Rallis also scored in the third.

UW-Stout improved to 14-4-1 overall and 5-3-1 in the WIAC. Northland is 1-17-1 overall and 1-8 in the conference.

Pointers pull off sweep

Thanks to a pair of goals from Andrew Poulias, UW-Stevens Points was able to finish off a sweep of UW-River Falls with a 5-2 win. The Pointers won the opener on Friday by a 5-4 score.

Nick Gonrowski tallied two assists and Conor Witherspoon dished out his team-leading ninth assist of the year.

The Pointers improved to 12-3-3 overall and are still unbeaten in the WIAC with an 8-0 record. The Falcons are 7-11-1 overall and 1-7-1 in the conference. Dean Buchholz made 43 saves for the Falcons.

In Friday’s game, Tyler German scored with less than a minute to play to propel the Pointers to the thrilling win over a Falcons team that didn’t back down even after trailing 4-2 after two.

Blugolds and Yellowjackets finish with a tie

After UW-Eau Claire won 4-2 over UW-Superior on Friday, the two WIAC rivals played to a 3-3 in the series finale on Saturday.

UW-Eau Claire ended up wining the shootout for the extra point.

The Blugolds trailed 3-2 going into the third and tied the game on a goal by Ryan Green with less than five minutes to play. 

Goals by Conor MacLean, C.J. Walker and Zach Bannister had given the Yellowjackets a 3-1 lead late in the second. Leo Bacallao pulled UW-Superior within one with three minutes left in the second.

UW-Eau Claire is 11-6-1 overall and 4-3-1 in the conference. UW-Superior is 10-7-2 overall and 5-3-1 in conference play.