(Photo Credit: Albert Marro/Rutland-Herald)

RUTLAND, Vt. – Senior forward Colin Mulvey (Worcester, Mass.) played the role of hero again on Saturday afternoon scoring with 14.7 seconds to lift the Norwich University men's ice hockey team to a 2-1 win over rival Castleton State in "The Battle of Vermont" showdown.

Mulvey sniped a wrist shot off the right post and into the back of the net to beat Castleton State junior goalie Erik Cinotti over his glove, giving him his second last minute game-winning goal in a week. Freshman Dean Niezgoda (Brewster, Mass.) and junior forward Travis Janke (Swift Current, Sask.) recorded the assists on the goal.

Mulvey also scored the game winner against Middlebury last week in the PrimeLink Great Northern ShootOut Tournament championship. Saturday's winner was his team-leading fifth of the season and was his eighth overall on the year.

Norwich (9-0-0, 7-0-0 ECAC East) has now won five straight games against Castleton, including three in a row at Spartan Arena.

Despite dominating the second period, outshooting Castleton 11-1, the Cadets weren't able to solve Cinotti until the 16:02 mark when Janke beat Cinotti blocker side for his fifth goal of the season and third on the weekend.

Mulvey and Janke worked a give and go with Mulvey streaking down the right wing and dropping the puck back to Janke in the mid slot. Janke wristed the puck far post past Cinotti to knot the game up at one.

Castleton (5-4-1, 3-4-1 ECAC East) struck first blood in the opening period on the power play with Nick Lazorko beating Norwich starting goalie Chris Czarnota (Wakefield, Mass.) over the glove at the 14:00 minute mark of the period to give the Spartans a 1-0 lead.

Norwich turned up the pressure in the second period in search of the equalizer. The Cadets were aided by three Castleton penalties, including 20 seconds of 5-on-3. Castleton successfully killed off all three penalties but NU wasn't short of chances.

Senior captain Pier-Olivier Cotnoir (Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec) blasted a one-timer from the point that Cinotti got a blocker on and then less than a minute later Janke had a tip in front of the net that Cinotti lost between his pads but was able to fall back and get a whistle.

With a little over seven minutes left in the period, Mulvey walked out from the corner and with a defender draped all over him he got a shot off that hit the post. Senior forward Kyle Thomas (Waltham, Mass.) and Mulvey each got shots off as well but Cinotti and the Castleton defense stood tall to turn back NU.

Castleton responded by controlling the play for nearly the entire third period. Norwich took three penalties to help the Spartans gain momentum. Brett Zeggil just missed wide left on a backhand with a wide-open net after Czarnota was sprawled out on the ice after making an initial save. Moments later Ross Herzog rang a shot off the post from the left side of the crease with Czarnota lying on the ice.

Josh Harris made a bid to give Castleton the lead again with 4:50 remaining when he deked around a Norwich defender and got off backhand that Czarnota was able to get his paddle on and deflect away. Lazorko had a partial breakaway with 2:27 left in the game when he picked off a botched pass in the neutral zone and skated in on Czarnota. NU's Bryce Currier frantically hooked at Lazorko and he took a penalty while Lazorko got off a soft shot on Czarnota.

Norwich killed off the penalty to set up Mulvey's late-game heroics.

Czarnota improved to 3-0-0 on the year turning aside 10 shots. Cinotti was saddled with his first loss of the season after making 17 saves with 10 coming from his stellar second-period performance.

Norwich closes out the first semester schedule and wraps up its three-game road trip next Friday, Dec. 7 at Plattsburgh in an important non-conference matchup. Faceoff is set for 7 p.m. at Stafford Ice Arena.

-CADETS-