Box Score RUTLAND, Vt. – Paced by a five-point night from senior co-captain Jillayne DeBus (Howell, Mich.), the No. 4-ranked Norwich University women's ice hockey team skated past in-state foe Castleton 8-2 on Saturday afternoon in Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) East action.
DeBus scored twice and added three more assists to continue her recent hot streak and help Norwich (14-2-3, 13-1-0 ECAC East) win its eighth straight game. She has now tallied 12 points in the last three games.
Junior forwards Renee Lortie (Cornwall, Ontario) and Tori Charron (Tecumseh, Ontario) continued to shine on the top line with DeBus. Lortie netted four assists, while Charron chipped in with two goals and one assist to record her 100th career point.
Charron leads Norwich with 20 goals and 13 assists for 33 points on the season after spending her first two seasons at Elmira College.
Junior defenseman Kayla Parsons (Fairbanks, Alaska) added a goal and an assist, while sophomore forward Tyne Gove (Berwick, Ontario), senior forward Jackie Perez (San Gabriel, Calif.) and junior defenseman Brittany Sharman (Ayer's Cliff, Quebec) each scored as well for the Cadets.
DeBus and Sharman each scored in the first period to jumpstart the Cadets to an early lead that they would never relinquish. Charron pushed the lead to 3-0 before Castleton (8-8-3, 5-4-3 ECAC East) finally got one back with Alison Howard lighting the lamp late in the second.
However, the Cadets pumped two more goals home in the final two minutes with DeBus scoring again with an assist from Parsons. Parsons made it 5-1 with two seconds left in the period to completely seize the momentum going into the second intermission for Norwich.
Norwich outshot Castleton 30-24. Sophomore goalie Loren Carrier (Chandler, Ariz.) stopped 22 shots to pick up her ninth victory of the season and improve to 9-1-2 on the year. Paula Stephens was charged with the loss for Castleton after giving up five goals on 20 shots to fall to 7-6-3 on the season.
Norwich is now seven points up on second-place Manhattanville for first place in the ECAC East standings after the Valiants lost to UMass-Boston. Manhattanville has two games in hand though.
The Cadets return home to Kreitzberg Arena on Friday, Feb. 1 when they host Southern Maine at 4 p.m. as part of a doubleheader with the NU men taking on New England College at 7 p.m. NU will then host Military Appreciation Night the following day with the women taking on Plymouth State at 1 p.m. and the men hosting Saint Anselm at 4 p.m.
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