Box Score NORTHFIELD, Vt. – Junior forward Paul Russell (Andover, Mass.) scored his first collegiate hat trick to lead the Norwich University men's ice hockey team to a huge 4-2 victory over No. 7/8 UMass Boston on Saturday afternoon at Kreitzberg Arena in New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) action.
Norwich (15-7-2, 10-5-2 NEHC) made a big statement on the weekend, sweeping two top-10 ranked teams after downing Babson 5-1 on Friday night as well. The Cadets were unranked this week for the first time since 2009.
After a scoreless first period, Russell opened the scoring just 40 seconds into the middle stanza with his 10th goal of the season off an assist from Niezgoda.
UMass Boston (17-4-2, 13-2-1 NEHC) answered back just over two minutes later when the Cadets couldn't clear the zone and Alex Demchuk took advantage, stealing the puck at the blue line and skating in on the left wing. He took an initial shot that sophomore goalie Braeden Ostepchuk (Lethbridge, Alberta) got a piece of, but he followed up his own rebound and punched it into the back of the net to tie the game at 1-1.
The Beacons took the lead just 1:30 later with Derek Colucci notching his seventh goal of the year off a scrum in front of the net. Frankie DeAugustine and Garrison Sanipass picked up assists on the goal.
Norwich was able to tie it up with 18 seconds left in the second period with Russell notching his second of the night off another pass from Niezgoda. Niezgoda set it up after getting turned aside on a breakaway. He corralled his rebound behind the net and fed a pass to Russell, who one-timed it into the back of the net from the low slow, beating UMB goalie Billy Faust through the five-hole.
Norwich took the lead for good just two minutes into the third period with a power play goal off a five-minuter major penalty on UMB. Salvucci beat Faust off an assist from Alec Brandrup (Rochester, Minn.) for the eventual game-winning goal.
Russell finished off the hat trick at the 9:58 mark of the third period, beating Faust with a quick wrist shot on a partial breakaway off assists from Salvucci and Justin Charbonneau (Bromont, Quebec). Salvucci created the play by winning the puck along the boards near the NU bench and feeding a pass to spring Russell on the breakaway.
Ostepchuk made 28 saves to improve to 12-4-1 on the season. Faust made 37 saves to fall to 10-4-2 on the year.
With the win, Norwich locked up third place in the NEHC standings and will host a quarterfinal matchup on Feb. 20.
