Box Score NORTHFIELD, Vt. – The Norwich men's hockey team moved one step closer to defending its ECAC East Tournament championship with a 4-0 shutout of Southern Maine in the ECAC East Semifinals on Friday afternoon at Kreitzberg Arena.
The top-seeded Cadets (19-5-3) jumped out on top with a goal from Scott Schroeder at the 8:17 mark of the first period and then never looked back as they rolled to the shutout victory.
Schroeder found himself all alone in front of the net and tipped a shot from Blake Forkey at the blue line through the five hole of Southern Maine goaltender Braely Torris to give the Cadets a 1-0 lead.
Norwich added to its lead with a little over five minutes left in the second period when Greg Eskedjian hit Tory Allan with a tape-to-tape break out pass to spring Allan all alone on a breakaway.
Allan waited out Torris and then shuffled the puck past Torris top shelf on the backhand to beat the Huskies' goaltender blocker side and push the Cadets' lead to 2-0.
The Cadets added two more insurance goals in the final five minutes of the game when Francois Gatien tallied his third goal of the year off a pass from Schroeder who circled behind the net and fed Gatien in the high slot. Gatien took the pass and then rifled a wrist shot over Torris' glove to make it 3-0.
Travis Janke capped the scoring with his 11th goal of the season off an assist from Shane Gorman at the 19:37 mark of the third period. Gorman found Janke all alone on the doorstep and Janke slid the puck into an open net to make it 4-0.
Norwich's Parker Carroll made 15 saves to pick up his fourth shutout of the season and stay undefeated on the year to improve his overall record to 11-0-2.
Torris made 39 saves for Southern Maine and kept the Huskies (8-13-5) in the game while Norwich outshot USM 43-15.
The Cadets will await the winner of Friday's second semifinal contest between No. 2 Castleton and No. 5 Babson to find out who they will face in the 2011 ECAC East Championship game. Face-off is set for 7 p.m. at Kreitzberg Arena.
