Box Score NORTHFIELD, Vt. – The Norwich University men's ice hockey team ended Castleton University's season for the fifth straight year with a 4-1 victory over the Spartans in the New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) Tournament Quarterfinals at Kreitzberg Arena on Saturday night.
No. 3-seed Norwich (17-7-2) scored four unanswered goals after No. 6 Castleton took a brief 1-0 lead in the second period. The Cadets advance to the NEHC Semifinals where they will have to travel to No. 2 Babson and play their first road league playoff game in 18 seasons. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. at the Babson Skating Rink.
Castleton (8-16-2) struck first with a power play goal at the 7:14 mark of the second period as Will Laking potted his ninth goal of the season off a cross-ice pass from Patrick Thornton. Ben Bauer also picked up the secondary assist. Thornton was standing at the half boards and sent a picturesque cross-ice pass to Laking at the other faceoff circle. Laking corralled the pass and snapped a wrist shot that beat Ostepchuk to his left, just inside the right post to give the Spartans a 1-0 lead.
Norwich knotted the game up at 1-1 at the 12:27 mark of the first period with freshman Austin Evans (Whistler, British Columbia) scoring his second goal of the season, banging home a rebound off an initial shot from the point by Alec Brandrup (Rochester, Minn.). Evans planted himself at the top of the crease and slipped a rebound that deflected off Castleton goalie Ryan Mulder's pad into the back of the net. Sophomore Justin Charbonneau (Bromont, Quebec) picked up the second assist on the goal.
The Cadets took their first lead of the game 2:30 later with William Pelletier (St. Jean Chrysostome, Quebec) redirecting a pretty pass from the point by Connor Evangelista (Wakefield, Mass.) just under the cross bar to make it 2-1 Norwich.
Norwich carried the 2-1 lead into the second intermission, but the Cadets added two more tallies in the final period to pull away for the 4-1 victory.
Junior Paul Russell (Andover, Mass.) gave Norwich a little breathing room at the 13:46 mark of the third period with an impressive individual effort. Russell picked up the puck in the neutral zone and then side stepped a Castleton defender to skate in on a partial breakaway from the left wing. He cut towards the crease, flipped the puck over to his back hand and then slid it in through Mulder's five-hole to make it 3-1 Norwich.
The Cadets added another insurance tally at the 18:13 mark of the third period with Kevin Salvucci (Plymouth, Mass.) scoring his team-leading 16th goal of the year on the power play off a nice setup from Tyler Piacentini (South Weymouth, Mass.) and Nick Pichette (Massena, N.Y.). Pichette fed the puck to Piacentini who sent a no look backhand pass behind him that Salvucci caught, turned and fired into the bottom left corner of the net to make it 4-1 Norwich.
Sophomore goalie Braeden Ostepchuk (Lethbridge, Alberta) made 21 saves for Norwich to win his fourth straight start and improve to 14-4-1 on the year. Mulder made 39 saves for Castleton to finish the year at 7-10-1.
No. 1-seed UMass Boston hosts the No. 4 seed University of New England in the other NEHC semifinal. The two semifinal winners will meet in the NEHC Championship on Saturday, Mar. 4.
