Box Score NORTHFIELD, Vt. – The Norwich University women's ice hockey team got goals from five different players en route to cruising to a 5-0 victory over Southern Maine in the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) East Tournament Semifinals on Saturday afternoon.
Senior forwards Stephanie Invernizzi (Hingham, Mass.) and Jackie Perez (San Gabriel, Calif.), as well as junior forward Haley Gibson (Richmond, Ontario) each had a goal and an assist to lead the Cadets to their fifth straight ECAC East Championship game appearance.
Despite carrying the play and holding a 13-2 shot advantage after the first period, Norwich (21-3-3) failed to solve Southern Maine goalie Liz Bergstrom.
In the second period, the Cadets continued to wear the shorthanded Huskies (8-13-6), who only had 14 skaters dressed. NU finally got on the board with a goal by junior forward Emily MacKinnon (Kirkland, Quebec) for her third tally of the season at the 6:05 mark.
MacKinnon slipped the puck behind Bergstrom finally after a long scramble in front of the net where Nicolette Gosselin (Barre, Vt.) and Lucie Manhartova (Prague, Czech Republic) both had chances stoned by Bergstrom.
Exactly four minutes later, Perez pushed the lead to 2-0 when she beat Bergstrom five-hole after following up her own shot for her fourth goal of the season. Invernizzi also picked up an assist on the goal after feeding the puck over to Perez on the right wing.
Junior forward Tori Charron (Tecumseh, Ontario) finished off the second-period scoring and stretched the lead to 3-0 with a power play goal for her Division-III leading 30th goal of the season at the 19:37 mark.
Charron slapped the puck past Bergstrom from the bottom of the right faceoff circle after the USM goalie made a save on a shot from Jillayne DeBus (Howell, Mich.). Renee Lortie (Cornwall, Ontario) also recorded an assist on the goal.
Charron and Lortie each moved to within one of the respective milestones they are chasing on the goal. Charron is now one-goal away from tying the NU single season goals record currently held by Julie Fortier. Lortie now sits at 99 career points and is one shy of becoming the sixth player in program history to reach the century mark for the points.
Invernizzi made it 4-0 Norwich 7:12 into the third period when she redirected a initial shot by Marie-Philip Guay (Longueuil, Quebec) in front of the net. She tipped the puck underneath the arm of Bergstrom for her ninth goal of the year and Gibson also picked up an assist on the goal.
Gibson capped the scoring at the 14:54 mark of the third period with a power-play goal on a beautiful tic-tac-toe passing set up from Perez and Brittany Sharman (Ayer's Cliff, Quebec).
Sharman started the play by sliding the puck from the point over to Perez at the top of the right faceoff circle. Perez fired a pass to the slot that Gibson extended her stick out to tip past Bergstrom for her third goal of the season and give NU the 5-0 lead.
Norwich outshot Southern Maine 38-10. Senior goalie Kelly Fisk (Hannibal, N.Y) turned aside all 10 shots she faced to pick up her third shutout of the season and improve to 9-2-1 overall. Bergstrom stopped 33 shots for USM to finish the season at 7-9-4.
The Cadets will face the winner of the Manhattanville/UMass-Boston semifinal on Sunday at 3 p.m. as they look to capture their fourth ECAC East Tournament title in the last six seasons. NU won in 2009, 2010 and 2012.
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