PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. – All season the Plattsburgh State Cardinals have been the Norwich University women's ice hockey team's kryptonite.
The trend continued on Saturday night in the 2014 NCAA Division III Women's Ice Hockey Championship. Plattsburgh rallied from an early 1-0 hole to score seven unanswered goals, including four in a span of 7:16 in the first period en route to a 9-2 victory to secure its third national championship and first since 2008.
Plattsburgh State senior forwards Ali Vakos and Chelsea VanGlahn continued their Cadet crushing ways as they each tallied four points apiece to lead the Cardinals' offense.
After dropping the two regular season meetings by scores of 6-0 each time, Norwich (27-4-0) started the game about as well as you could ask for. The Cadets held their own and even capitalized on a rare mistake by the 2014 Laura Hurd Award winner in Plattsburgh senior goalie Sydney Aveson to take a 1-0 lead.
Junior forward Madyson Moore (Dubuque, Iowa) sent a soft shot on net from the top of the slot that Aveson went to poke check away, but she timed it wrong and the puck slid right under her stick and through her legs to give Norwich its first goal of the season against the Cardinals 8:30 into the game.
It was all Plattsburgh (28-1-1) from there though as Bridget Balisy scored just 1:27 later to pick the Cardinals and their All-American goalie right back up. Senior forward Jenny Kistner won a battle in the corner and poked the puck back to Balisy who ripped a wrist shot into the top left corner of the net to knot it up at 1-1.
Plattsburgh kept the momentum rolling as Julia Duquette scored at the 13:13 mark to give the Cardinals a lead that they would never look back from the rest of the game. Duquette scored her second of the season with a low shot from the point that found its way through traffic in front of Norwich goalie Taylor Fairchild (Overland Park, Kan.). Van Glahn and Vakos notched the assists on the goal that turned the tide of the game.
Just 2:18 later Van Glahn made Norwich pay again, increasing the Cardinals' lead to 3-1 with her 13th goal of the season off assists from former NU forward Tyne Gove and Vakos.
Fairchild made an initial save on a shot by Gove with her left pad, but Van Glahn beat everybody to the rebound, swooping in and burying the puck into the wide open net. The goal prompted NU head coach Mark Bolding to pull Fairchild in favor of junior goalie Loren Carrier (Glendale, Ariz.) who played the remainder of the time.
Balisy capped Plattsburgh's four-goal run to end the first period with her second of the game, sniping a shot from the mid slot cross bar down over the glove of Carrier to make it 4-1 Cardinals.
Plattsburgh continued its relentless offensive pressure in the second period, outshooting Norwich 19-6 and adding another goal on the score sheet with Jordan Caldwell notching her 13th of the year.
Plattsburgh poured in two more goals in the first seven minutes of the third period with Van Glahn and Kistner stretching the lead to 7-1. Norwich then had six minutes of power-play time after Plattsburgh took four straight minor penalties. However, Aveson stepped up to the task, making 13 saves over the course of the NU power plays to keep the Cadets from gaining any traction for a comeback.
Just seconds after the final penalty expired, Caldwell notched her second of the game and make it 8-1 Plattsburgh.
Norwich did get one more goal with senior forward Haley Gibson (Richmond, Ontario) tipping a shot from Taylor Cross (Saugus, Mass.) from the point that found its way past Aveson.
Vakos capped the scoring with 25 seconds left for her 13th of the season off an assist from VanGlahn.
Aveson finished with 37 saves for Plattsburgh and improved to 22-1-1 on the season. Fairchild's nine-game winning streak came to halt after making 13 saves on 16 shots. Carrier made 27 saves in relief for the Cadets.
Aveson, Balisy, VanGlahn and Alison Era represented Plattsburgh State on the All-Tournament team. Norwich senior defenseman Brittany Sharman (Ayer's Cliff, Quebec) and UW-River Falls' Chloe Kinsel rounded out the squad selections.
Plattsburgh also snapped Norwich's program-record 18-game winning streak with the victory and won its fourth straight against the Cadets in the process. Plattsburgh is now 6-4-1 all-time against Norwich.
Norwich's 10-player senior class, including seven that entered the program as freshmen in the 2010-11 season leave Northfield, Vt. as the most successful classes in program history. The seniors compiled a 101-15-5 record in their careers; which included four straight NCAA Tournament appearances, four ECAC East regular season titles, three Frozen Four appearances, three ECAC East Tournament titles and the crown jewel with the 2011 NCAA Division III National Championship.
