NORTHFIELD, Vt. – After a slow start to Saturday's game vs. Castleton University, the Norwich University women's ice hockey team exploded for a six-goal third period to pull away for an 8-0 victory at Kreitzberg Arena. 

No. 3/4 nationally-ranked Norwich (5-2-0, 5-0-0 NEHC) got points from 13 different skaters, including two goals from junior Amanda Conway (Metheun, Mass.) to lead the Cadets to their fifth straight league victory to open the season. 

Sophie McGovern (Hermantown, Minn.), Adrieana Rossini (Malden, Mass.), Maddi Blauth (Pennington, N.J.), and Kirsten Watts (Chugiak, Alaska) all tallied a goal and an assist to help lead the offense as well. 

Sophomore goalie Emily Lambert (Riverview, Mich.) stopped all 15 shots she faced to pick up her second career shutout. 

Norwich needed 11 minutes to record its first shot as Castleton controlled the action for a large portion of the first period. However, Conway finally broke through with a power play goal sniping a shot high into the corner of the net off a pretty tic-tac-toe setup from Maggie Conroy (Batavia, Ill.) and Robyn Foley (Goulds, Newfoundland and Labrador). 

McGovern made it 2-0 at the 17:37 mark of the second period with a snipe of her own over the shoulder of Castleton goalie Alexis Kalm. Samantha Benoit (Bow, N.H.) made a great play to hold the blue line and poked the puck up to McGovern. McGovern walked in from the left and zipped a shot under the cross bar for her second of the season. 

Norwich opened the floodgates in the third period with Rossini starting things off on a power play goal at the 6:32 mark, sliding a shot into a wide open net on the back door off a nice pass from Jess Piracini (Arlington, Mass.) and Watts. 

Nicole Lorenzo (Coral Springs, Fla.) made it 4-0 at the 9:49 mark with a snapshot into the bottom right corner of the net for her first goal of the season off an assist from Rossini. 

Blauth increased the lead to 5-0 at the 10:23 mark as a shot from the point by Foley deflected off her leg and into the back of the net. Carly Menges (Novelty, Ohio) picked up the second assist on the goal. 

Norwich scored three more goals in a span of 1:04 later in the third period with Brynn Wopperer (Amherst, N.Y.), Watts and Conway all scoring goals. Freshman Carley Sedlar (Howell, Mich.) recorded her first collegiate point with the primary assist on Watts' goal. 

Norwich outshot Castleton 28-15 for the game, including a 15-3 margin in the third period. The Cadets also went 2-for-4 on the power play. 

NU held Castleton 0-fer on six power play opportunities, including two full minutes of 5x3 action in the second period. Lambert made her best save of the game coming across the crease to rob Jade Remillard with a blocker save in the waning moments of the Castleton power play. 

Lambert improved to 2-1-0 on the year after being named to the NEHC weekly honor roll last week. 

Norwich is off until Friday, Nov. 30 when the Cadets host Salem State for the first time in program history at 4 p.m. in Kreitzberg Arena.