GORHAM, Maine – The Norwich University men's ice hockey team scored four third-period goals to rally from an early 2-0 deficit en route to a 5-2 victory over the Univ. of Southern Maine on Friday night in its New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) debut.

Norwich (2-0-0, 1-0-0 NEHC) got two goals from sophomore Kevin Salvucci (Plymouth, Mass.) and three assists from junior Tyler Piacentini (South Weymouth, Mass.) as the Cadets battled through a slow start to net four goals in a span of 3:35 in the third period to skate away from the Huskies.

After giving up two first period goals and trailing 2-0 entering the first intermission, Norwich slowly worked its way back into the game with sophomore defenseman Alec Brandrup (Rochester, Minn.) finally getting a puck past USM goalie Kyle Shapiro at the 12:39 mark of the second period off an assist from Piacentini.

With less than seven minutes to go in the game and still trailing 2-1, Salvucci put the Cadets on his back, scoring twice in a span of 1:58 to tie the game and then pot the eventual game-winning goal to thwart USM's upset bid.

Salvucci scored his first of the night off an assist from Piacentini at the 13:08 mark of the third period. He then scored again at the 15:10 mark on the power play unassisted to start a string of three straight power play strikes for Norwich.

Freshman Austin Evans (Whistler, British Columbia) notched the first goal of his college career at the 16:20 mark off assists from Cody Smith (Hudson, Mass.) and Austin Surowiec (Louisville, Ky.).

Junior Paul Russell (Andover, Mass.) capped the scoring with his second goal in as many games off an assist from Piacentini to cap the scoring on the night.

Norwich outshot USM 35-18 for the game with sophomore Braeden Ostepchuk (Lethbridge, Alberta) scoring his second win of the season, stopping 16 of 18 shots to improve to 2-0-0 on the year. Shapiro finished with 30 saves to fall to 1-1-0 on the year.

The Cadets look to sweep the Maine road trip tomorrow at 4 p.m. when they take on the University of New England in another NEHC matchup at the Alfond Forum.