I remember reading about this a couple of years ago. I thought they were supposed to be assembling an international team and planning carefully how to make the final breach without polluting the lake?
Maybe they got impatient (20 years drilling!) and/or wanted a success for political reasons.
Interesting to see what they find down there. There is an idea that the subglacial lakes are interconnected from time to time under the ice, so not as isolated from each other after all, or the rest of the world either.
Another similar attempt in the offing here at Lake Ellsworth:
http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/press/pr...se.php?id=1697
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16538495