NORTHFIELD, Vt. – Norwich needed to dig a little deeper on Saturday night, but the Cadets still prevailed 4-2, thanks to their lone two seniors chipping in a goal each to break a 2-2 tie in the second period in ECAC East action at Kreitzberg Arena.

Senior D Greg Eskedjian tallied his first goal of the season on the power play at the 15:33 mark of the second period off assists from Scott Schroeder and Chris Duszynski to give the Cadets the lead for good at 3-2.

Fellow senior and team-captain Chad Anderson scored the insurance goal with 1:45 remaining in the game on a solid individual effort. With each team down a skater, Anderson stole the puck away from a Southern Maine defenseman and walked out from behind the net to beat USM goaltender Braely Torris high and glove side.

After a scoreless first period, which featured numerous hard hits and physical play, Norwich freshman F Chris Duszynski continued his impressive opening weekend by scoring 45 seconds into the second period. Duszynski worked a give-and-go with Pier-Olivier Cotnoir and Duszynski beat Torris short side to give the Cadets a 1-0 lead.

Southern Maine answered just under four minutes later on the power play when Zach Joy sniped a shot over the shoulder of Norwich sophomore G Alex Dubois that hit the cross bar and ricocheted down over the goal line to knot the score at one.

Sophomore F Kyle Thomas, who the led the Cadets with 23 goals last season got his first of 2010-2011 at the 8:56 mark to put Norwich back on top.

Thomas received an outlet pass from Eskedjian and skated in from the wing on Torris. Thomas released a wrist shot that was initially stopped by Torris, however he wasn't able to cover the puck before Thomas poked the rebound right through Torris' five-hole.

Southern Maine's Craig Perham tied the game back up at the 13:04 mark of the period, beating DuBois between his arm and body, short side to tie the game back up at two.

DuBois made 14 saves in net for Norwich to improve to 2-0 on the season. Torris made 22 stops and was saddled with the first loss of the season for the Huskies.

Norwich finished 1-for-5 on the power play, while Southern Maine was 1-for-6.

The Cadets (2-0-0, 2-0-0 ECAC East) will return to action on Friday, Nov. 26 when they take on arch-rival Middlebury in the opening round of the 2010 PrimeLink Great Northern Shootout at Plattsburgh's Ronald B. Stafford Ice Arena. Faceoff is set for 4 p.m. with Plattsburgh hosting St. John's (Minn.) in the nightcap.