Box Score
Video Highlights by Tanner Acebo, NU Sports Information
NORTHFIELD, Vt. – The Norwich University men's ice hockey team kept rolling along with a 6-2 win over New England College on Friday night at Kreitzberg Arena in Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) East action.
Sophomore William Pelletier (St. Jean Chrysostome, Quebec) and junior Dean Niezgoda (Brewster, Mass.) each had three points to lead the Cadets' offense in the victory.
Norwich (17-2-1, 13-0-0 ECAC East) continued to strengthen its grip atop the ECAC East standings as it searches for its 17th straight league regular season title. With five games to play, NU continues to lead second-place UMass Boston by four points.
The Cadets raced out to a 3-0 lead in the first period with Gerard McEleney (Canton, Mass.), Alec Brandrup (Rochester, Minn.) and Brian Rowland (Waltham, Mass.) each scoring goals for NU.
McEleney gave Norwich the lead just 1:37 into the game when he snapped off a wrist shot just inside the right post that beat NEC goalie Sebastian Andersson past his glove to make it 1-0 Cadets. Freshman Mitch Byrne (Onaping, Ontario) and Rowland picked up the assists on McEleney's seventh goal of the season.
Brandrup increased the lead to 2-0 at the 6:01 mark of the first when he worked a textbook give and go with Niezgoda after picking off a NEC outlet pass at the blue line. Brandrup stepped up at the blue line and intercepted a clearing pass. He flung a pass to the right wing where Niezgoda corralled the pass and then sent the puck back to Brandrup who was crashing the net in the slot. Brandrup took the pass and slipped the puck through Andersson's five-hole for his second goal of the season.
Rowland made it 3-0 at the 13:52 mark with a power play goal into the top right corner of the net off an assist from Brandrup after his shot was initially saved by Anderrson. The rebound kicked out to Rowland in the high slot who fired it past the NEC goalie for his third goal of the year.
New England College (7-10-4, 4-8-2 ECAC East) finally got on the board at the 17:08 mark of the first period with Chris Santello finding the back of the net off a pretty setup from Conor Crouse and Cheyne Matheson. Matheson passed the puck down low towards Crouse; Crouse lifted the stick of a NU player and caught the pass before sliding it over to a cutting Santello who buried the puck into the right corner of the net.
NEC cut the deficit to 3-2 at the 12:26 mark with Kyle Manlow going from his blue line to the NU defensive slot and firing a wrist shot just inside the right post past NU sophomore goalie Ty Reichenbach (Billings, Mont.) off an assist from Matheson.
Pelletier got a big goal for Norwich though with just 10 seconds left in the second period to regain the two-goal lead and the momentum heading into the locker room for the second intermission.
He hooked up with Niezgoda for a pretty cross ice pass and then Pelletier did the rest, slipping the puck past Andersson for his 11th goal of the year.
Niezgoda tallied his 11th goal of the year at the 4:57 mark of the third period to stretch the Norwich lead to 5-2. He scored off assists from Pelletier and Thieda.
Thieda fed the puck down to Pelletier at the goal line from the point. Pelletier dropped the puck back to Niezgoda who was crashing the slot and Niezgoda wristed a shot that Andersson got a piece of, but couldn't quite keep out of the net as the puck caught his shoulder and then trickled over the line.
Pelletier capped the scoring with a snipe bar down as the extra attacker after NEC was whistled for a delayed penalty to make it 6-2 Norwich. Corey Hale picked up the assist on Pelletier's team-leading 12th goal of the season. Pelletier leads the nation with 2.1 points per game and now has 12 goals and 17 assists for 29 points in 14 games played.
Reichenbach improved to 9-0-1 on the season after stopping 14 shots to secure the victory. Andersson fell to 5-7-2 with the loss after making 26 saves.
Norwich will take on Saint Anselm College at 4 p.m. tomorrow in the second game of Norwich hockey's Military Appreciation Night with the women taking on UMass Boston at 1 p.m.
-CADETS-
