PLATTSBURGH, N.Y.- For the second straight year, the Norwich Men's Ice Hockey team met regional rival Plattsburgh State for the championship of the LayerEight Shootout with the two teams facing off for the first time since Norwich's overtime victory in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in March.

Off the opening puck drop, the Cadets had an opportunity that Cardinal goaltender Jacob Hearne turned away. After that initial rush, Plattsburgh carried the offense, including a couple of chances for Luk Jirousek that were stopped by Sami Molu (Toronto, On.). With Norwich struggling to establish a presence in the offensive zone, the Cardinals began a barrage of shots, all of which were turned away by Molu. However, an offensive zone penalty negated the Plattsburgh press. They would go to the box again as the period was winding down. Despite the Cardinals holding a 17-5 shot advantage, the game was scoreless after the first period.

The final 53 seconds of the penalty were killed off to open the second period, but began started generating shots on Hearne, including an odd man rush that was nullified without a shot. With eight minutes gone by in the period, with the goalie pulled on a delayed penalty, a shot from defensemen Kevin Weaver-Vitale from the left circle found it's way through Molu's pads putting the Cardinals ahead and granting them a man advantage. 27 seconds later, on the powerplay, freshman forward Tio D'Addario put home a rebound of a Bennett Stockdale into a yawning cage to put Plattsburgh up by two.

When the teams evened up Norwich had a couple of chances to get back in the game that were shut down. Soon after those chances, Plattsburgh defenseman Ryan Hogg was given a five-minute major and a game misconduct for direct contact to the head. Even though the Cadets were generating shots, Hearne was not allowing rebounds or second chance opportunities. Late in the five-minute powerplay, off a feed from Patrick Del Vecchio (Mississauga, On.), a shot by Devon Thibodeau (Pelham, On.) got blocked down. The ricochet came to Paul Schmid (Linz, Austria) in front of net which he put by Hearne to cut the Cardinal lead in half. Before the period ended, Molu would make another big stop to keep the margin at one after forty minutes.

The opening act of the third period was choppy, with numerous faceoffs taking place. Once the action became more fluid, the Cadets began to press for the tie with a chance in close that missed the net. Molu would make more saves to keep things as they were and was being equaled by Hearne. Molu would be pulled with a minute and a half to play, but Norwich struggled to set up their offense before time expired resulting in a 2-1 Cardinal win with Molu making 39 saves.

"I am very proud of our effort," said Head Coach Cam Ellsworth. "We got down two and lost multiple players due to injury but there was no quit in this team."

Next weekend, Norwich will close out the first half of their season when they host travel partner New England College Dec 1 at 7 PM.

LayerEight Shootout All-Tournament Team:
MVP: Bennett Stockdale (Plattsburgh State)
Rookie: Tio D'Addario (Plattsburgh State)
All-Tournament: Clark Kerner (Norwich)
All-Tournament: Kevin Weaver-Vitale (Plattsburgh State)
All-Tournament: Devon Thibodeau (Norwich)
All-Tournament:  Jacob Hearn (Plattsburgh State)
 All-Tournament: Sami Molu (Norwich)