Video Highlights by Tanner Acebo, NU Sports Information

NORTHFIELD, Vt. – The Norwich University women's ice hockey team exploded four five second-period goals to break a scoreless deadlock and cruise to a 5-1 win over UMass Boston on Saturday afternoon in Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) East action at Kreitzberg Arena.

Norwich (13-3-2, 10-0-1 ECAC East) extended its league unbeaten streak to 27 straight games with the victory after five different players scored goals in a balanced offensive effort.

Freshman Maki Shuchuk (Madison, Wis.) finally broke through with the game's first goal at the 3:03 mark of the middle stanza when she knocked home a pass from behind the net by Kaycie Anderson (Maple Plain, Minn.) to give Norwich a lead it would never look back from. Senior defenseman Liz Gemmiti (Toronto, Ontario) also picked up an assist on the goal.

The Cadets added to their lead just 1:26 later when sophomore forward Kaka McComber (Kahnawake, Quebec) corralled her own rebound and backhanded the puck through UMass Boston goalie Moe Bradley's five-hole to make it 2-0 Norwich with her second goal of the season. Senior Madyson Moore (Dubuque, Iowa) and freshman forward Kalie Brown (New Westminster, British Columbia) picked up the assists on the goal.

Moore pushed the lead to 3-0 at the 16:52 mark of the period with a snipe to the top right corner of the net off a pass from behind the net by junior defenseman Taylor Cross (Saugus, Mass.).

Just 27 seconds later senior captain Vanessa Champagne (Saint Nazaire, Quebec) got in on the scoring act with an unassisted tally to make it 4-0 Norwich. Sophomore Adelle Murphy (Roseau, Minn.) capped the scoring with her second goal of the season at the 19:18 mark to make it 5-0 Cadets.

UMass Boston (8-8-4, 5-5-2 ECAC East) got on the board at the 8:17 mark of the third period with Samantha Fallon scoring in front of the net off a feed from Kristen Embrey to break up the shutout. However, it wasn't enough as the Beacons lost their fourth straight game.

Sophomore Celeste Robert (Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec) played the first 40 minutes and turned aside all 11 shots she faced for Norwich. Carrier came on for the final 20 minutes and made seven saves on eight shots. Bradley stopped 38 shots for UMass Boston in the loss.

Norwich sits all alone in first place at the top of the ECAC East standings with six league games remaining. The Cadets have 21 points to Saint Anselm's 18 in second place as they look for their fifth straight league regular season title. The next closest Division III team is Salve Regina with 16 points.

The Cadets travel to Middlebury on Tuesday for a big non-conference showdown with the Panthers at Kenyon Arena at 7 p.m. NU then returns home on Friday, Feb. 6 for its final home regular season game against Franklin Pierce at 4 p.m.

-CADETS-