Box Score NORTHFIELD, Vt. – The Norwich University women's ice hockey team had 14 different skaters get on the scoresheet in a 9-1 victory over Suffolk University on Saturday afternoon at Kreitzberg Arena in New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) action.
Norwich (16-4-2, 13-0-0 NEHC) extended its unbeaten streak to seven straight games and clinched its ninth league regular season title in the last 10 seasons with the victory. The Cadets also locked up the No. 1 seed and home ice throughout the NEHC playoffs.
Senior forwards Sophie McGovern (Hermantown, Minn.) and Amanda Conway (Methuen, Mass.) each scored two goals and had two assists to lead the Cadets' offense in the victory.
Freshman forward Julia Masotta (Tewksbury, Mass.) scored two goals as well to continue her hot streak while playing with McGovern and Conway.
Conway opened the scoring at the 4:11 mark with a goal on a breakaway off assists from Samantha Benoit (Bow, N.H.) and Maddie Moell (Clarence Center, N.Y.). Benoit hit Conway with a pass at the Suffolk blue line in stride and then the speedy forward split the defense before coming in on goal and beating Julia McLellan five-hole for her 21st goal of the season.
McGovern made it 2-0 at the 7:41 mark with her 12th goal of the season off assists from Morgan Tefft (Redwood City, Calif.) and Conway. McGovern corralled a rebound off an initial shot from the blue line from Tefft to score her first of the game.
Senior Brynn Wopperer (Amherst, N.Y.) scored her fifth goal of the season on a pretty setup from behind the net by Kelley Madden (Novelty, Ohio) to make it 3-0 late in the first period.
Blossom Truel (Stratford, Wis.) scored her ninth goal of the year at the 19:29 mark to make it 4-0 Cadets after 20 minutes. Truel stuffed home a loose puck in the crease off assists from Moell and Hulst.
Norwich added two more power play goals in the second period to extend the lead to 6-0 after 40 minutes. Carley Sedlar (Howell, Mich.) scored her seventh off assists from Ann-Frederique Guay (St. Lambert-de-Lauzon, Quebec) and Benoit.
McGovern scored her second of the game and 13th of the season off assists from Ingrid Holstad-Berge (Stavanger, Norway) and Guay at the 15:40 mark of the second period.
Suffolk (7-12-3, 7-6-1 NEHC) scored for the first time in four all-time meetings against Norwich at the 4:09 mark of the third period with Molly Dowd cashing in a breakaway attempt, beating Norwich sophomore goalie Alexa Berg (West Fargo, N.D.) glove side to cut the lead to 6-1.
Norwich scored three more times before the final buzzer sounded with Masotta scoring twice and Conway capping the scoring with her 22nd of the season and 106th of her career to move into sole possession of third on the NCAA Division III all-time scoring list. She passed Tori Charron '14, who had 105 goals between two seasons at Elmira and two at Norwich.
Norwich outshot Suffolk 68-16. Berg made 15 saves to improve to 6-3-2 on the season. McLellan made 41 saves and was pulled after two periods. Kristen Caporusso came on to make 18 saves in the final period.
Norwich will host Southern Maine on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. in a rescheduled game from Friday after the snowstorm forced the postponement.
