Box Score GENESEO, N.Y. – The Norwich University men's ice hockey team fell one win short of making its fifth straight NCAA Division III Frozen Four appearance.
Norwich (20-7-3) squandered a 2-0 lead as Geneseo's Tyler Brickler tallied a natural hat trick to lead the Ice Knights to the 3-2 come-from-behind victory.
The Cadets got goals from freshman Anthony Flaherty (South Boston, Mass.) and senior forward Shane Gorman (Trumbull, Conn.), but it wasn't enough to stop Geneseo (23-6-0) from reaching its first Frozen Four.
Flaherty scored a power play goal with a second left in the first period to give Norwich a 1-0 lead off assists from Gorman and sophomore forward Dean Niezgoda (Brewster, Mass.).
Gorman stretched the Norwich lead to 2-0 at the 9:20 mark of the second period with his ninth goal of the season off an assist from sophomore defenseman Ryan Whitell (Calgary, Alberta).
It was all the Brickler show from there though as the junior forward scored his 16th, 17th, and 18th goals of the season to complete the natural hat trick and punch Geneseo's ticket to Lewiston, Maine.
Brickler finally got Geneseo on the board at the 17:47 mark with his first of two power play goals off on a rebound off assists from Zachary Vit and David Ripple.
Brickler scored again on the power play at the 1:34 mark of the third period to tie the game up at 2-2 off assists from Justin Scharfe and Jack Caradonna.
The Ice Knights took their first lead of the game just under five minutes later when Brickler beat NU senior goalie Chris Czarnota (Wakefield, Mass.) again, this time off assists from Stephen Collins and Matt Solomon.
Norwich pulled Czarnota for the final minute of the game in favor of the extra attacker, however the Cadets were unable to score the equalizer.
Norwich outshot Geneseo 37-25, including a dominant 13-3 effort in the first period. Czarnota made 22 saves to conclude his senior season with a 10-4-1 record. Geneseo sophomore Nick Horrigan made 35 saves for the Ice Knights to improve to 14-1-0.
Geneseo will take on St. Norbert on Friday, March 21 at 4 p.m., while Oswego will meet UW-Stevens Point at 7:30 p.m.
Norwich's six-player senior class of 2014 of Czarnota, Gorman, Chris Duszynski, Parker Carroll, Zac Fulton and Travis Janke conclude their four-year careers with a 90-20-8 record. They helped lead the Cadets to four straight ECAC East regular season titles, two ECAC East Tournament titles, two PrimeLink Great Northern ShootOut titles, four NCAA Tournament appearances and three NCAA Frozen Four appearances.
