RUTLAND, Vt. – The Norwich men's ice hockey team scored 19 seconds into Friday's showdown with in-state rival Castleton and never trailed from that point as the Cadets picked up a 5-2 statement victory over the Spartans in ECAC East action in front of a sell-out crowd at Spartan Arena.
The Cadets (14-5-3, 12-1-3 ECAC East) avenged an earlier 3-2 overtime loss to Castleton on Dec. 11, 2010 at Kreitzberg Arena and grabbed sole possession of first place in the ECAC East standings with the win.
Sophomore Pier-Olivier Cotnoir continued his big-game heroics, tallying a hat trick to lead the Norwich offense.
Norwich wasted no time jumping on top as Travis Janke wrestled the puck away from a Castleton defender behind the back of the net and then fed a centering pass to Cotnoir, who was all alone in front of the net. Cotnoir banged the puck through McNary's five-hole to give NU a 1-0 lead just 19 seconds in.
Cotnoir stretched the lead to 2-0 at the 18:20 mark of the period with a great individual effort for his second goal of the game. Cotnoir took a pass in the neutral zone and sidestepped a check from Castleton's Reid Lesswing at the blue line. Cotnoir skated in from the right wing and deked McNary before sliding the puck behind him into an open net.
Greg Eskedjian solidified the Cadets' dominating effort in the first period by capping the first 20 minutes with a goal that just beat the buzzer. With the clock winding down, Eskedjian took a pass from Cotnoir at the point and then released a wrist shot that crossed up McNary and trickled over the goal line to give the Cadets a 3-0 lead.
Castleton coach Alex Todd pulled McNary at the start of the second period for freshman Erick Cinotti to try and fire his squad up.
However, the new goaltender didn't faze the Cadets who executed a perfect tic-tac-toe passing play to make it 4-0. Kyle Thomas brought the pull into the zone on an odd-man rush. He centered the puck into the high slot where Blake Forkey tapped the puck back to Chad Anderson, who deked once and then flipped the puck past a sprawled out Cinotti at the 5:50 mark of the period for the Cadets' second power play goal of the game.
The goal coupled with an assist earlier in the game combined to give Anderson the two points he needed coming into Friday's game to reach the 100-career-point milestone.
Castleton cut into the lead with 4:14 left in the period when Chris Wieland finally got the Spartans on the board by banging home a loose rebound off a scramble in front of the NU net.
Norwich nearly answered right back moments later, but Tory Allan was stoned by Cinotti on the top of the crease.
Castleton cut the deficit to 4-2 when Dru Douglass' wrist shot found its way through traffic and past NU goaltender Parker Carroll's glove for a power play goal.
However, that's as close as the Spartans would get as Cotnoir provided the final dagger with his third goal of the night in the final minute with Castleton's goalie pulled to cap the scoring.
Cotnoir fought off a Castleton player at his own blue line and was able to fling the puck into the open net from his knees to cap the hat trick with his 12th goal of the season.
Carroll stayed unbeaten on the season, picking up the win for NU and improving to 7-0-2 on the year.
Norwich plays its final road game of the regular season on Saturday afternoon when the Cadets take on Skidmore in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. at 4 p.m.
