MIDDLETOWN, Conn. – The third-ranked Norwich men's ice hockey team had its four-game winning streak abruptly halted at the hands of Wesleyan University on Friday night in a 5-2 loss to the Cardinals at Spurrier-Snyder Rink in Interlock action.

The Cadets (10-5-1, 8-1-1 ECAC East) suffered their first defeat in conference play this season, despite outshooting Wesleyan 49-20.

Junior defenseman Pasha Kozhokin was one of the lone bright spots as the Kharkiv, Ukraine native accounted for both of the Norwich goals with tallies at the 7:55 and 12:30 mark of the third period.

After a scoreless first period, Wesleyan's Anthony DePietto gave the Cardinals a 1-0 lead with an unassisted tally 4:27 into the second period.

The backbreaker didn't come until the end of the period though when Wesleyan scored three goals in a span of 3:18 to take a 4-0 lead into the second intermission.

John Guay, Adam Kaiser, and Geoff Mucha accounted for the three Cardinal goals.

At the start of the third period, Norwich coach Mike McShane replaced starting goaltender Alex Dubois with Parker Carroll.

Kozhokin cut the deficit to 4-1 with assists from Owen Carpino and Emmond Bell. But, just 13 seconds later Wesleyan's Nik Tasiopoulos squashed any chance of a swing in momentum by giving the Cardinals their four-goal lead back.

Matt Hadge made 47 stops for Wesleyan to pick up the win and improve to 2-2-1 on the season. Dubois made 10 saves on 14 shots in 40 minutes of action, while Parker made five saves on six shots in the final 20 minutes.

Wesleyan (4-6-3, 3-5-1 NESCAC) has now won back-to-back games over Middlebury and Norwich. Friday night's win marked just the second time the Cardinals have ever beat Norwich in 18 meetings.

The Cadets will try to rebound on Saturday afternoon as they travel to Hartford, Conn. to take on Trinity College at 3 p.m.