NORTHFIELD, Vt.- The Norwich Men's Ice Hockey team took to home ice to open the second half of their season Saturday night, where they played host to Aurora in the first day of action in this year's Northfield Savings Bank Holiday Tournament. The game would conclude in dramatic fashion, with the duo of Clark Kerner (Kansas City, Kan.) and Bryan O'Mara (Syracuse, N.Y.) linking up for both the game tying goal in the dying seconds, and the overtime winner.

Donned in their brand-new maroon uniforms for the first time, the Cadets had the Spartans on their heels early outshooting them 8-2 in the first five minutes. Norwich keeping Aurora on their heels eventually led to a Cadet powerplay. While the first man advantage did not yield a goal, the powerplay that followed 20 seconds later did. Off a faceoff win, Jed Brazo (Homer, N.Y.) would get the puck at the hashmarks on the right-wing boards. Brazo, teed it up for a one-timer by Cooper Bertrand (Caledon, On.) from the point, which deflected off Johnny Johnson (Naperville, Ill.) as he provided the screen in front of Spartan goaltender Jacob Mucitelli.

As the period wore on, the Cadet defense was not allowing the Aurora attack to get inside and get any high danger chances against Sami Molu (Toronto, On.). However, the Spartans would get their legs under them and would tie the game with eleven seconds left in the opening frame. Off an icing, Aurora won the faceoff with the puck coming to the left point for Tyler Pang, as Pang swapped positions with Juliano Santalucia, he left the puck for him. Santalucia took the original shot that was stopped by Molu, but the rebound was put in by Jakson Kirk to even the score at intermission.

Neither side found the scoresheet in the second period, which was filled with a lot of choppy action and post whistle skirmishes while Molu and Mucitelli traded saves with each other. To begin the third period, the Cadets were granted two early powerplays, neither of which converted. Aurora also had an opportunity late on the man advantage, which was unsuccessful, but soon after they would break the deadlock.

After Mucitelli denied a breakaway with under three minutes to play, the Spartans took the puck the other way. A wrist shot from the left point by Blake Kondor found its way into a mass of bodies in front of Molu, after several whacks at the puck, it came to Kirk who slid the puck passed a screened Molu to put the Spartans in front for the first time.

Sensing the urgency, Molu would be summoned to the bench for the extra attacker with a minute and a half to play. Aurora took several attempts at the empty net, which eventually resulted in an icing. After a Spartan timeout Kerner, who won 20 out of 25 draws on the night, won it forward to the right corner, which was retrieved by O'Mara. Kerner found a soft spot in front of the net, took the feed from O'Mara, and retied the game with 24 seconds to play, sending the game to overtime.

Norwich never gave up possession in the extra frame, as the Cadets took the opening faceoff into the attacking zone. Kerner had two shots that were denied, with the second opportunity coming to O'Mara crashing the net as he buried the rebound for the overtime winning score.

"I'm extremely excited to come away from that game with a win," said Head Coach Cam Ellsworth.

With the win, Norwich advances to the tournament championship game at 7 PM on Dec 31 against former conference foe University of New England, who defeated Wesleyan 2-1 earlier in the day. This will be the first meeting between the Cadets and Nor'easters since Nov. 2, 2019.