NORTHFIELD, Vt. – The Norwich University women's ice hockey team saw its 2021-22 season come to a stunning close in a 1-0 loss to No. 5 seed Castleton University on Saturday afternoon at Kreitzberg Arena in New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) Semifinal action. 

Senior goalie Alexa Berg (West Fargo, N.D.) made 21 saves, but Norwich was unable to muster a goal despite peppering the Castleton University goal with 41 shots. CU sophomore goalie Kirsten DiCicco continued to give Norwich fits after also earning a win over the Cadets in Kreitzberg last season. 

Norwich's (19-8-0) streak of 12 straight league championship game appearances was snapped with the loss. The last time the Cadets didn't make the championship game was their very first varsity season in 2007-08. 

Castleton (15-9-2) scored the game-winning goal at the 13:27 mark of the third period with Darby Palisi scoring on the power play for the only goal of the game Palisi took a cross ice pass from the middle of the left faceoff circle off a perfectly threaded pass by Courtney Gauthier and roofed the puck into a wide-open net from the right side of the crease. Emery Bonner picked up the secondary assist. 

Norwich pulled Berg for the final minute, but was unable to put any serious pressure on the net before the final buzzer sounded. 

Junior forward Mikah Baptiste (Ottawa, Ontario) led Norwich with six shots on goal. Classmate Julia Masotta (Tewksbury, Mass.) was 21-for-28 in the faceoff dot. The Cadets had two power play chances in the first period but were unable to score on either. 

Norwich hit two posts just 20 seconds apart in the first period with Ann-Frederique Guay (St. Lambert-de-Lauzon, Quebec) and Taylor Tom (Kenora, Ontario) ringing shots off the post. 

Castleton will meet Elmira College for the 2022 NEHC Championship game on Saturday, March 5 in Pine Valley, N.Y. It will mark the Spartans' fourth trip to the league title game. They lost the previous three trips to Norwich each time in 2014, 2015 and 2019.