NORTHFIELD, Vt. – The No. 5-ranked Norwich University men's ice hockey team picked up a weekend sweep with a 3-0 win over the Univ. of Southern Maine on Saturday afternoon at Kreitzberg Arena in Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) East action.

Freshman forward Trevor Stewart (Mission. Texas) scored twice and fellow rookie forward Dmitry Ermakov (Columbia, Md.) added a goal as well as Norwich (14-3-2, 10-1-1 ECAC East) won its fourth straight game.

Senior goalie Chris Czarnota (Wakefield, Mass.) made his second straight start and stopped all 11 shots he faced to record his second shutout of the year and improve to 4-0-0 on the season.

Ermakov opened the scoring at the 8:17 mark of the first period when he fired a wrist shot from the far half boards that snuck past Southern Maine goalie Josh Hillegas for his second goal in as many games and third of the year.

Ermakov collected the puck in the corner after Erik Lyrvall (Falun, Sweden) took a shot that was deflected off the back dashers. Ryan Whitell (Calgary, Alberta) also picked up an assist on the goal.

Neither side would score again until the third period as Norwich carried a dominant 24-3 shot on goal advantage through two periods.

Stewart took care of the rest of the scoring in the third period, recording his fourth and fifth goals of the season.

He made it 2-0 Norwich at the 3:40 mark of the third when he sniped a wrist shot over Hillegas' shoulder into the upper right corner of the net after William Pelletier (St. Jean Chrysotome, Quebec) and Dean Niezgoda (Brewster, Mass.) won a battle along the boards to dig the puck out and find Stewart all alone crossing through the slot.

Stewart capped the scoring by going coast to coast and firing a wrist shot that beat Hillegas between his arm and body to push the Norwich lead to 3-0 late in the third.

Southern Maine outshot Norwich 9-8 in the final stanza, but the Huskies couldn't get one past Czarnota.

With the victory, the Cadets remained in sole possession of first place in the ECAC East standings with 21 points. However, Babson trails close on NU's heels with 20 points after scoring a huge weekend sweep of UMass-Boston.

Norwich hits the road for four straight games, starting with a big matchup against third-place New England College on Friday night at 7 p.m. at the Lee Clement Arena. The Cadets will then take on Saint Anselm on Saturday afternoon.

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