NORTHFIELD, Vt. – The Norwich men's ice hockey team returned home to Kreitzberg Arena for the first time since early January and treated the hometown fans to a 2-0 shutout win over UMass-Boston on Friday night in ECAC East action.

Freshman goaltender Parker Carroll picked up his second straight shutout in net for the Cadets as he turned aside all 17 shots he faced to improve to 5-0-0 on the season.

Christophe Paquet and Scott Schroeder each tallied goals to account for the NU offense in a battle between two of the top three teams in the ECAC East standings.

Norwich (12-5-1, 10-1-1 ECAC East) jumped out on top at the 12:36 mark of the first period when Paquet scored his first career goal in the Maroon and Gold.

Paquet redirected an initial shot by Tory Allan from below the left corner on the end line past UMass-Boston goaltender Kevin Bendel to give the Cadets a 1-0 lead.

Norwich outshot UMass-Boston 17-5 in the first period but could only muster the lone goal by Paquet.

Schroeder gave the Cadets some breathing room at the 13:38 mark of the second period when he scored his team-leading 11^th goal of the season on a 5-on-3 power play.

Chad Anderson took a shot from the high slot that sailed wide of the net and then bounced off the glass behind the net right onto Blake Forkey's stick on the weak side. Forkey attempted a shot but a UMass-Boston defender lifted his stick before he could get off a clean shot. The puck rolled onto Schroeder's stick, who was all alone on top of the crease and the sophomore forward buried the puck into an empty net before Bendel could recover.

That capped the scoring as neither side was able to put another puck across the goal line.

Norwich outshot UMass-Boston 41-17 and went 1-for-3 on the power play, while UMass-Boston was 0-for-3.

Bendel was saddled with the loss for UMass-Boston after stopping 39 shots to fall to 7-2 on the season.

Norwich maintained its one-point lead in the ECAC East standings over Castleton after the Spartans beat Tufts 8-3.

UMass-Boston (13-5-0, 8-4-0 ECAC East) is now five points behind in third place.

Norwich has now won 26 of the last 27 meetings with the Beacons.

The Cadets return to action Saturday afternoon when they host Babson at 4 p.m. at Kreitzberg Arena in another ECAC East contest.