NORTHFIELD, Vt. – The Norwich University women's hockey team survived an early scare going down 2-0 before scoring five unanswered goals to rally to a 5-2 win over New England College on Saturday afternoon at Kreitzberg Arena in Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) East action.

Junior forward Tori Charron (Tecumseh, Ontario) scored twice to lead the Norwich offense as the Cadets extended their conference regular season unbeaten streak to 41 straight games. Senior co-captain Jillayne DeBus (Howell, Mich.) also chipped in with a goal and an assist for NU.

New England College (2-1-1, 1-1-0 ECAC East) needed less than a minute to strike first blood when Morgan Braniff beat Norwich sophomore goalie Caroline Barth with a wrist shot over the glove to make it 1-0 Pilgrims 58 seconds into the game.

NEC pushed its lead to 2-0 when Madyson Moore made a pretty move to deke around a Norwich defenseman and then faked out Barth to beat her five-hole at the 9:44 mark of the first period off an assist from Andrea St. Onge.

Moore's goal prompted NU head coach Mark Bolding to pull Barth for sophomore goalie Loren Carrier (Chandler, Ariz.) who had started in the Cadets' first three games of the season.

Norwich (2-0-2, 2-0-0 ECAC East) co-captain Stephanie Invernizzi (Hingham, Mass.) finally jumpstarted the Cadets' offense at the 15:55 mark of the first period when she skated down a long pass up the boards from the defensive zone off the stick of Brittany Sharman (Ayer's Cliff, Quebec). Invernizzi caught the puck a couple strides above the circles and then roofed the puck cross bar and down to cut the deficit to 2-1. Junior Emily MacKinnon (Kirkland, Quebec) also picked up an assist on the goal.

Charron tied the game up with her first goal of the night 40 seconds into the second period when she scored on a similar play to Invernizzi's goal. Once again Charron took an outlet pass from Sharman and then skated in on NEC goaltender Lauren Hopps. Charron deked the NEC goalie and then slid the puck around Hopps to tie the game at 2.

Just over two minutes later, junior forward Renee Lortie (Cornwall, Ontario) scored what would turn out to be the game-winning goal when she scored off assists from DeBus and Tyne Gove (Berwick, Ontario).

Charron notched her second goal of the night at the 15:59 mark of the second period when she scored off a rebound after an initial blast from the point by Taylor Cross (Saugus, Mass.) was saved by Hopps. Charron shoveled home the rebound after the puck fluttered into the area to the right of the goal where Charron was crashing. Kaycie Anderson (Maple Plain, Minn.) also picked up an assist on the goal.

Norwich capped the scoring at the 18:33 mark of the third period when DeBus finally tallied her first goal of the season off an assist from MacKinnon. DeBus flipped a shot on net that Hopps got a piece of, but the puck deflected off a NEC defender and into the back of the net to give Norwich a 5-2 lead.

Carrier made 11 saves in a little over 50 minutes of action to pick up her second win of the season and improve to 2-0-2. Hopps took the loss for NEC after making 36 saves for the Pilgrims.

Norwich was 1-for-4 on the power play while NEC was 0-for-3. The Cadets outshot NEC 41-14.

Norwich makes it first road trip of the season next weekend when they travel to Plymouth State and Southern Maine on Friday and Saturday for 6 p.m. and 4 p.m. face-offs respectively.

-CADETS-