Video Highlights by Tanner Acebo, NU Sports Information

NORTHFIELD, Vt. – The Norwich University men's ice hockey played its best game of the season en route to an impressive 5-0 shutout victory over the Univ. of Southern Maine on Friday night at Kreitzberg Arena.

Norwich (3-0-0, 2-0-0 ECAC East) dominated from the opening faceoff, buzzing around Southern Maine's defensive zone for nearly the entire period in front of a raucous crowd of over 1,800 fans for NU's annual Whiteout Night.

Senior Nevin Lawler (Fitchburg, Mass.) scored twice and tallied an assist to lead the Norwich offense on the night, while freshman goalie Braeden Ostepchuk (Lethbridge, Alberta) made 14 saves to record his first collegiate shutout in just his second start.

The Cadets needed just 26 seconds to take the lead as senior forward Nevin Lawler (Fitchburg, Mass.) jammed home his first goal of the season to put Norwich up 1-0. Lawler found a loose puck in the crease after USM goalie Kyle Shapiro made an initial save on a shot from the point by Alec Thieda (Rochester Hills, Mich.) Senior forward Gerard McEleney (Canton, Mass.) picked up the second assist after he dug a puck out of the corner and slid it back to Thieda at the blue line.

Norwich continued to control the play and pin the Huskies back in their own end. McEleney nearly made it 2-0 but Shapiro robbed him with a diving point-blank save to stuff him on the right side of the crease with 8:45 left in the period. McEleney almost scored again with 5:56 to play in the opening frame but he ripped a wrist shot off the upper 90 corner of the net that deflected away.

The Cadets' relentless offensive pressure finally paid off when sophomore Anthony Flaherty (South Boston, Mass.) increased the lead to 2-0 when he beat Shapiro with a wrist shot to the right side of the net from the high slot. Lawler and junior Ryan Whitell (Calgary, Alberta) picked up the assists on the goal.

Norwich didn't let off the gas in the second period, scoring three more times to extend its lead to 5-0 before the end of the second intermission.

Senior defenseman Corey Hale (Montreal, Quebec) made it 3-0 with a top-shelf wrister from the point on the power play that beat Shapiro off assists from Lawler and Whitell at the 7:38 mark.

Sophomore forward Brendan Boyce (St. Albans, Vt.) increased the lead to 4-0 just 1:18 later when he picked the right corner of the net, beating a sprawled out Shapiro over the glove from the right faceoff circle. Sophomore defensemen Cody Smith (Hudson, Mass.) and Brian Rowland (Waltham, Mass.) picked up the assists on the goal with a textbook cross-ice passing setup.

Rowland fed the puck from the point down to Smith at the left faceoff circle and Smith immediately fired the puck across the ice to the other faceoff circle where Boyce corralled the pass and then sniped the top corner of the net.  

Lawler capped the second period scoring with his second of the night with 34 seconds left in the middle stanza when he knocked down a shot from the point by Smith, spun to his left and slid the puck into an open net leaving Shapiro no chance to recover. McEleney picked up the secondary assist.

Shapiro made 35 saves for Southern Maine (1-3-0, 0-3-0 ECAC East) to fall to 1-3 on the year. Ostepchuk improved to 2-0-0 on the season with his 14-save performance. Norwich finished 2-for-7 on the power play, while Southern Maine was 0-for-4. The Cadets outshot the Huskies 40-14.

Norwich improved to 26-3-0 all-time against Southern Maine. The Cadets haven't lost to the Huskies since 2007.

Norwich will look to make it four in a row to start the season when it wraps up its home stand at 4 p.m. by hosting the Univ. of New England at Kreitzberg Arena in another ECAC East contest.

-CADETS-