(Photo Courtesy Adam Hatt Photography)
NORTHFIELD, Vt. – Junior forwards Travis Janke (Swift Current, Saskatchewan) and Shane Gorman (Trumbull, Conn.) each scored while junior goalie Chris Czarnota (Wakefield, Mass.) made 16 saves to propel the top-seeded Norwich University men's hockey team to a 2-0 win over Southern Maine in Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) East action on Saturday night at Kreitzberg Arena.
The two teams battled for nearly 40 minutes without a goal before Janke beat Southern Maine goalie Josh Hillegas at the 19:08 mark of the second period for his 13th goal of the season in a four-on-four situation.
Senior forward Colin Mulvey (Worcester, Mass.), who was named the ECAC East Player of the Year late Friday night picked up the assist on the goal after he left the puck behind the net for Janke and then let his linemate do the work from there.
Janke scooped up the puck along the wall and then circled out to the front of the net from the left side of the cage. Janke waited for Hillegas to make his move and then roofed the puck over the Huskies' goaltender's right shoulder to beat him short side and give Norwich (22-2-1, 16-1-1 ECAC East) a 1-0 lead that it would never relinquish.
Gorman added to the lead just past the midway point of the third period when he flipped a loose rebound in the crease over a sprawled out Hillegas after the USM goalie made an initial save on freshman forward Dean Niezgoda (Brewster, Mass.) on a breakaway.
Gorman sprung Niezgoda on the break by shoveling the puck up to him after he had a stride on two Southern Maine defenders. Niezgoda tried to jam the puck past Hillegas on the forehand but the USM goalie stuffed him. Gorman trailed the play though and found the puck sitting in the crease long enough to lift it over Hillegas for his sixth goal on the year.
Southern Maine (7-19-0, 4-14-0 ECAC East) didn't go away quietly though and they had two glorious chances to get on the board late in the game when they had a full 2:00 5-on-3 advantage after Norwich's Kyle Thomas (Waltham, Mass.) and Niezgoda were whistled for minors.
The Huskies worked the puck around efficiently and ended up hitting two posts within 15 seconds with one by Ryan Seward and the other by Garrett White. However, that's as close as Southern Maine would get as the Cadets held on for the shutout and advance to the ECAC East semifinals for the fourth straight season.
Czarnota picked up his second shutout of the season and improved to 11-1-1. Hillegas made 18 stops to finish the year at 7-14-0.
Norwich will host rival fourth-seed Castleton State at 4 p.m. in the first of two semifinal games next Friday at Kreitzberg Arena. No. 2-seed UMass-Boston will play No. 3 Babson in the other semifinal to follow at 7 p.m. The two semifinal winners will meet in the ECAC East championship game on Saturday at 7 p.m.
-CADETS-
