NORTHFIELD, Vt. – The Norwich University men's ice hockey team faced its stiffest test of the season to date in a physical grinding game against the Univ. of New England on Saturday afternoon at Kreitzberg Arena.

Despite falling behind 1-0 early, No. 3-ranked Norwich (4-0-0, 3-0-0 ECAC East) scored four unanswered goals to rally to a 4-1 win and its fourth straight victory to open the 2014-15 season.

Senior defenseman Corey Hale (Montreal, Quebec) scored a goal and added an assist to lead the Norwich offense, while sophomore goalie Ty Reichenbach (Billings, Mont.) made 20 saves to improve to 2-0-0 on the year.

Seniors Alec Thieda (Rochester Hills, Mich.) and Nevin Lawler (Fitchburg, Mass.), as well as sophomore Tyler Piacentini (South Weymouth, Mass.) each scored a goal as well for the Cadets.

UNE (2-3-0, 1-3-0 ECAC East) came out flying from the opening faceoff, taking it to Norwich physically and bottling the Cadets up in their own defensive zone. The Nor'Easters held a 5-0 shot advantage at one point and didn't allow a NU shot on goal for nearly eight full minutes.

UNE was finally rewarded for its effort, seizing the 1-0 lead at the 9:11 mark of the first with Trevor Fleurent knocking a puck in off a faceoff win from Jared Melman.

Norwich regrouped as the period went on and slowly started to work its way back into the game. Hale tied the game with a blast from the blue line on the power play off an assist from Cody Smith (Hudson, Mass.) to knot the score at 1-1 at the 16:53 mark.

Neither side scored again for the remainder of the period and the two teams were deadlocked at one heading into the first intermission.

Norwich took the lead just 1:49 into the second period with Thieda notching his first goal of the season with a stealthy wrist shot from the point that evaded the outstretched skate of UNE goalie Colby Drost and kicked off the inside of the right post to make it 2-1 Cadets.

UNE nearly tied the game with 15:25 left but Reichenbach made an early candidate for save of the year with a sprawling glove save to rob Fleurent at point-blank range from the top of the crease while the Nor'Easters were on a power play.

Eventually Norwich pulled away in the third period with Lawler notching his third goal of the season on the power play and Piacentini scoring his fourth of the season to give the Cadets some breathing room.

Lawler knocked home a loose rebound in the crease after an initial shot from Hale was blocked by Drost. Anthony Flaherty (South Boston, Mass.) also recorded the second assist on the goal at the 9:46 mark of the third.

Piacentini put the game away for good with a top-shelf snipe on a partial breakaway off a pretty feed from freshman Connor Evangelista (Middletown, Mass.) to make it 4-1 with 2:18 left in the game.

Drost made 23 saves for UNE and Reichenbach made 20 saves for the Cadets. Norwich outshot UNE 27-21 and finished 2-for-5 on the power play.

Norwich will hit the road for the next three weekends, starting with a road trip to New England College and Saint Anselm next Friday and Saturday. Last year, Norwich dropped both games. The Cadets will then head to the PrimeLink Great Northern ShootOut in Middlebury, Vt. where they'll face Plattsburgh State on the Friday after Thanksgiving at 4 p.m. NU closes out the first half of the season at Castleton and Skidmore in the first weekend of December.

-CADETS-