Box Score NORTHFIELD, Vt. – Senior forward Kyle Thomas (Waltham, Mass.) broke a 2-2 tie with four minutes left in the third period to lift the No. 2-ranked Norwich University men's ice hockey team to a 3-2 win over 11th-ranked St. Thomas (Minn.) in the opening round of the 15th annual PrimeLink Great Northern ShootOut.
With the victory, the Cadets (6-0-0, 5-0-0 ECAC East) will have a chance to defend their 2011 PrimeLink title tomorrow night at 7 p.m. when they host long-time rival Middlebury, who downed Plattsburgh 3-2 in the opener on Friday afternoon at Kreitzberg Arena.
Thomas took a pass from senior captain Pier-Olivier Cotnoir (Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec) on a 2-on-1 rush and sniped a wrist shot over the glove of St. Thomas goalie Drew Fielding as he sprawled out in desperation to get a piece of the puck.
Cotnoir setup the eventual game-winning goal by stealing the puck in the neutral zone from a St. Thomas forward and quickly wheeling back into the Tommies' defensive zone. Cotnoir skated in from the left wing and slid the puck over to Thomas while evading a St. Thomas defender. Thomas took care of the rest by wristing the puck into the top right corner of the net for his third tally of the season and his first since Nov. 10.
Thomas' goal came just 1:49 after St. Thomas' Rob Vannelli tied the game at 2, beating Norwich sophomore goalie Matic Marinsek (Ljubljana, Slovenia) through traffic off an assist from Willi Rose.
Rose skated into the NU zone and dropped the puck back to Vannelli who took a wrist shot that changed direction after deflecting off a body in front of the net and bounced off the cross bar and into the back of the net.
Earlier in the period, St. Thomas' Tyler Richter finally became the first player to solve Marinsek this season, ending his shutout streak to start his career at 170 minutes and 31 seconds.
Richter skated in from the right wing and beat Marinsek short side, catching the NU goalie cheating off the right post to put the Tommies on the board and cut the Cadets' lead to 2-1. Riley Horgan and Vannelli picked up assists on the goal.
Norwich opened the scoring at the 5:50 mark of the first period when Tory Allan (Davidson, Sask.) scored his fourth goal of the season off assists from Travis Janke (Swift Current, Sask.) and Colin Mulvey (Worcester, Mass.).
Allan finally knocked the puck past Fielding after the Cadets had a flurry of chances in front of the net. He took a pass from Janke at the side boards and beat Fielding to the left side of the cage to make it 1-0 Cadets.
Junior forward Shane Gorman (Trumbull, Conn.) stretched the Cadets' lead to 2-0 at the 5:45 mark of the second period when beat Fielding from the middle of the slot for his first goal of the 2012-13 season.
Gorman took a pass in the middle of the slot from Dean Niezgoda (Brewster, Mass.), turned to right and slid the puck under Fielding to the bottom left corner of the net. Freshman Ben Morgan (Calgary, Alberta) also picked up an assist on the goal.
Marinsek improved to 3-0-0 on the year stopping 17 shots for Norwich. Fielding turned in a superb effort for the Tommies, yielding three goals on 36 shots in the loss.
St. Thomas (5-3-1, 4-0-0 MIAC) will take on Plattsburgh State (5-2-0, 5-1-0 SUNYAC) in the consolation game tomorrow at 4 p.m.
Norwich extended its home unbeaten streak to 33 straight games with the victory and the Cadets will take on Middlebury tomorrow at 7 p.m. in search of their record eighth PrimeLink ShootOut title. Saturday's championship game will also mark the seventh straight trip to the PrimeLink title tilt for NU.
Norwich's Nevin Lawler (left) battles for possession on a faceoff with St. Thomas' Nick Nielsen (14) during Friday night's PrimeLink Great Northern ShootOut Semifinal game at Kreitzberg Arena (Jennifer Langille Photography)
