NORTHFIELD, Vt.- The Norwich Women's Ice Hockey team played their first New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) game on home ice since Nov. 18 on Friday night when they hosted Johnson & Wales.

Off the bat, the Cadets had a decided territorial advantage early with the first five shots, and several more high danger opportunities that missed the net or caught the post. At the halfway point, JWU got their first shots towards Madison Brunet (Timmins, On.) which was shut down. A few minutes after that brief flurry, the Cadets would open the scoring. The Wildcats were attempting to exit their defensive zone but could not handle the puck which was gathered at the red line by Grace Joscelyn (Hooksett, N.H.) and sent ahead to Olivia Boyer (Saint Paul, Minn.) who rushed ahead while JWU was attempting to execute a line change. Boyer's shot was kicked out by White, but right to the stick of Taylor Girouard (Burlington, Mass.) for the first goal of the game with Joscelyn recording her first career point.  

The two squads would exchange chances as the period would down, but in the final minute, Norwich would extend their lead. Livia Brooks (Walpole, Mass.) gained the zone and skated into the right-wing corner where she handed the puck off to Aimee Headland (Nottingham, U.K.). A Wildcat defender knocked the puck off Headland's stick, but the play was kept alive by Wilda Ohman (Lulea, Sweden) who sent a wrist shot from the blueline that deflected off a JWU player and into the net giving the Cadets a two-goal lead at intermission.

Norwich continued to push the issue in the second period and kept the edge in territorial play. The two teams would exchange powerplays in the period, but non converted. The two-goal lead stood for the Cadets after 40 minutes where they would get a five-minute powerplay to begin the third period with a contact to the head major occurring after the buzzer.

To open the five-minute powerplay, Norwich would score twice in 61 seconds. Off a Boyer faceoff win, Girouard would send the puck down the left boards to Headland. Headland then found Jenna Nikles (Riley, Mich.) behind the net and would poke home a wrap-around shot 16 second into the period to stretch the Cadet lead further. Soon after, Neris Archambault (Pepperell, Mass.) and Madison Anderson (Green Bay, Wis.) played catch at the top of the zone with Anderson sending an uncontested pass to a wide open Melianne Reynolds (Sherbrooke, Que.) at the net mouth for the fourth and final goal with Brunet picking up her third shutout of the season in three starts.

"I thought we came ready to compete tonight," Head Coach Sophie Leclerc Doherty said. "It was nice to see different players rewarded for their efforts since they have certainly put the work in. This is such a fun team to watch grow and we look forward to another opportunity to compete tomorrow for such a great cause."

Tomorrow, the Cadets will play host to UMass Boston in their Cadets Fight Cancer game with ceremonies getting underway  at 3 PM.