Box Score NORTHFIELD, Vt. – The Norwich University men's ice hockey team opened up the New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) Tournament with a dominant 9-0 performance over Castleton University on Saturday night at Kreitzberg Arena.
Norwich (22-2-2) had four-point nights from sophomores Gabriel Chicoine (St. Dominique, Quebec) and Brett Ouderkirk (Monkland, Ontario) as the Cadets ended Castleton's season for the eighth time in the last nine years at Kreitzberg Arena.
Senior goalie Tom Aubrun (Chamonix, France) extended his NCAA Division III record consecutive shutout streak to 452:31 straight minutes with his seventh straight shutout and his 11th of the season. Aubrun stopped all 19 shots he faced to record his 18th career shutout.
Norwich advances to the NEHC Semifinals for the 11th straight season where it will meet Southern Maine on Saturday, Feb. 29 at 7 p.m. The seventh-seeded Huskies upset Babson 3-2 to punch their ticket to the semifinal round.
The Cadets opened the scoring just 3:38 into the game with senior forward Jordan Hall (Anchorage, Alaska) scoring the game-winning goal for the third straight game. Hall, the reigning NEHC Player of the Week extended his goal-scoring streak to four straight games with his 10th goal of the season.
Hall converted on a beautiful setup from Ouderkirk and Connor Swystun (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan) with a laser one-timer off the cross bar and in from the top of the slot.
Taeron Lewis (Winnipeg, Mantioba) scored his first of two goals in the game with a low wrist shot into the right side of the next after using a Castleton player as a screen to make it 2-0 Norwich at the 14:00 mark of the first. Lewis scored off assists from Ouderkirk and Chicoine.
Norwich increased the lead to 4-0 in the second period with two goals from Maxime Borduas (St. Cesaire, Quebec), who played in his first game since Nov. 29.
Borduas' first goal came on the power play just seven seconds into the second period as he took a pass from Chicoine and skated into the zone and fired a wrist shot high from the top of the right faceoff circle. Coby Downs (Montclair, Calif.) picked up the second assist after winning the faceoff to start the period.
Borduas hooked up with Chicoine and Downs again on the fourth goal just 2:54 later with another wrist shot that beat Castleton's Brandon Collett up high for his sixth goal of the season.
Norwich added five more goals in the third period with two more on the power play after Castleton was whistled for 11 penalties and 49 minutes. The Cadets went 3-for-8 on the power play with Jack Griffin (Duxbury, Mass.) and Lewis scoring with the man-advantage.
Braedyn Aubin (Woodstock, Ontario), Ryan Boucher (Fitchburg, Mass.) and Brett Ouderkirk all scored third period goals as well.
Collett made 32 saves before being pulled in the third period after giving up five goals. Kyle Alaverdy came on to make five saves on nine shots.
Norwich had 13 different skaters on the scoresheet as it scored the most goals in a single game all season. The nine goals scored are the most NU has scored since also putting up 9 on Jan. 13, 2017 vs. Daniel Webster.
In other quarterfinal action, Hobart defeated Skidmore 4-2, while New England College beat UMass Boston 4-1. Hobart will host New England College next Saturday in the other semifinal matchup.
