NORTHFIELD, Vt. – The Norwich University men's ice hockey team scored five unanswered goals en route to its third straight victory and a 5-1 win over the Univ. of New England on Friday night in Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) East action at Kreitzberg Arena.

Freshman forward Paul Russell (Andover, Mass.) scored twice, while freshman Tyler Piacentini (South Weymouth, Mass.) and sophomore Dean Niezgoda (Brewster, Mass.) each dished out two assists to lead the Norwich (13-3-2, 9-1-1 ECAC East) offense.

UNE junior goalie Colby Drost stymied the Cadet attack for over half of Friday night's game, totaling 40 saves in all. However, rookie forward Dmitry Ermakov (Columbia, Md.) finally got one past Drost at the 11:36 mark of the second period and the Cadets never looked back from there.

Ermakov's second goal of the year came off a rocket blast from just outside the right faceoff circle that beat Drost over the shoulder and tied the game up at 1-1 after Jared Melman scored early in the period to give UNE (7-11-1, 4-8-0 ECAC East) the first lead of the game. Brian Rowland (Waltham, Mass.) and Niezgoda picked up assists on the goal.

Melman scored on a 1-on-1 with Czarnota after Tom Gildersleeve dropped a pretty no-look pass back to him. Melman deked Czarnota and slid the puck on his back hand into a wide open net to put the Nor'Easters up 1-0.

However, Ermakov tied it up and then 57 seconds later senior forward Travis Janke (Swift Current, Saskatchewan) scored his ninth of the season after redirecting an initial shot by Ryan Whitell (Calagary, Alberta) past Drost. Senior forward Shane Gorman (Trumbull, Conn.).

Just 2:31 later Russell scored his first of the season to complete the Cadets' quick three-goal burst in less than four minutes when he sniped a shot shelf over Drost after Piacentini and Nick Pichette (Massena, N.Y.) won a battle along the boards to free up the puck.  

Russell and Pelletier added goals in the third period to cap the scoring. Russell scored his eight of the season off a pass from Piacentini and Pelletier notched his eighth as well off assists from Trevor Stewart (Mission, Texas) and Niezgoda.

Norwich senior goalie Chris Czarnota (Wakefield, Mass.) made nine saves to improve to 3-0-0 on the season.

The Cadets return to action on Saturday afternoon when they host Southern Maine at 4 p.m. at Kreitzberg Arena.

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