NORTHFIELD, Vt. – Kyle Thomas and Tim Houston each scored two goals to lead the Norwich men's hockey team to a 7-2 win over Colby College in ECAC East/NESCAC Interlock action on Saturday afternoon at Kreitzberg Arena.

After Colby's Wil Hartigan gave the Mules a 1-0 lead at the 3:12 mark of the first period, Norwich responded with three straight goals to take control of the game, starting with a late tally in the final minute of the first period from Travis Janke.

Janke banged the puck home from the doorstep of the goal after Colby goaltender Cody McKinney made two initial saves to tie the game up at one with 46 seconds left in the period.

Greg Eskedjian gave the Cadets their first lead of the game 3:37 into the second period with an unassisted goal.

Eskedjian walked out from the corner and went straight to the goal without any Colby defenders picking him up and then slid the puck past McKinney on the backhand to give Norwich a 2-1 lead.

Thomas scored the first of his two goals at the 15:49 mark of the period when he tucked a loose rebound past McKinney after the Colby keeper had made an initial save of a shot from Pier-Olivier Cotnoir.

After giving up seven shots to Colby in the first 10 minutes of the game, the Cadets held the Mules to just three over the next 30 minutes and headed into the locker room with a 3-1 lead.

Colby made a game of it again with another goal from Hartigan on the power play just 2:33 into the period off assists from Jesse Lehman and Tommy Kader.

However, Norwich responded a 1:10 later when Houston redirected a shot from Francois Gatien at the point to give the Cadets a two-goal lead again.

Thomas put the game away at the 11:07 mark of the third period when he went coast-to-coast and then beat McKinney with a wrist shot short side that glanced off the post and into the back of the net to give the Cadets a 5-2 lead.

Scott Schroeder and Houston added insurance goals 28 seconds apart to close out the scoring in the 7-2 win.

Parker Carroll started in goal for Norwich for the second straight night and once again provided a solid effort between the pipes. The freshman goalie made 16 saves to pick up his second win of the season.

McKinney turned aside 34 shots for Colby and was saddled with the loss to drop to 2-6-1 on the year.

Norwich outshot Colby 41-18 and there were only three penalties called in the game with two against the Mules and one against the Cadets.

The Cadets will look to extend their winning streak to three games on Friday when hit the road for the start of a four-game road trip, starting with New England College on Friday at 7 p.m. in Henniker, N.H. Norwich follows up on Saturday afternoon with St. Anselm. Both games are ECAC East league contests.

With the weekend sweep, Norwich maintained its three-point lead over Castleton and UMass-Boston atop the ECAC East standings. The Cadets have 13 points while Castleton and UMass-Boston are tied with 10.