NORTHFIELD, Vt. – Senior Dean Niezgoda (Brewster, Mass.) scored a goal and an assist to lead the Norwich University men's ice hockey team to a 4-1 Senior Day victory over Saint Michael's College on Saturday afternoon at Kreitzberg Arena.

Norwich (16-7-2, 11-5-2, NEHC) ended the regular season on a three-game winning streak, outscoring its opponents 13-4 over that span. The Cadets earned the No. 3 seed for the New England Hockey Conference playoffs and will host No. 6 seeded Castleton next Saturday.

Norwich took a 1-0 lead at the 10:06 mark of the first period with Niezgoda scoring his sixth goal of the season. Paul Russell (Andover, Mass.) sprung Niezgoda on a breakaway with a head man tape-to-tape pass at the Saint Michael's blue line.

Niezgoda skated down the middle of the ice and snapped a wrist shot that Saint Michael's goalie Chris Johnson got a piece of with his glove, but the puck slowly trickled over the line to put the Cadets in front. Junior defenseman Cody Smith (Hudson, Mass.) also picked up the secondary assist on the goal.

Just over a minute later junior co-captain Austin Surowiec (Louisville, Ky.) tallied his second goal of the season with a quick wrist shot off assists from Dmitry Ermakov (Columbia, Md.) and Payton Baldillez (Arlington, Texas). Ermakov fed a pass from the half boards to Surowiec in the middle of the slot, who promptly potted the puck in the back of the net to make it 2-0 Cadets.

Saint Michael's (6-18-0, 3-15-0 NEHC) got on the board at the 14:57 mark of the second period with a pretty power play goal finished off by Nic Hermary after he was set up by Kevin Altidor and Danny Divis. Altidor won the faceoff back to Divis, who sent a pass down to Altidor skating in front of the net. Altidor dropped it back between his legs to Hermary who was on the left post and he rifled a wrist shot top shelf that beat NU goalie Braeden Ostepchuk (Lethbridge, Alberta) short side.

Norwich responded less than two minutes later with junior Anthony Flaherty (South Boston, Mass.) notching his second goal of the year off assists from Austin Evans (Whistler, British Columbia) and David Robertson (Boissevain, Manitoba).

Flaherty rifled a wrist shot from the top of the slot after Evans fed him a pass from the side boards to put the Cadets back on top by two with a 3-1 lead.

The Cadets capped the scoring at the 17:15 mark of the third period with Justin Charbonneau (Bromont, Quebec) tapping home an empty netter after Niezgoda flung the puck towards the wide open cage for his fifth goal of the year.

Ostepchuk made 16 saves to improve to 13-4-1 on the year. Chris Johnson made 42 saves for Saint Michael's.