NORTHFIELD, Vt.- The Norwich Women's Ice Hockey team continued their brief homestand when they hosted UMass Boston on Cadets Fight Cancer Day with festivities, including repelling the puck from the ceiling of Kreitzberg Arena to a cancer survivor.

Once the game got going, Norwich looked to get the crowd into it early by establishing the territorial edge as they outshot the Beacons 7-2 in the first seven minutes. After coincidental minors were assessed, UMass Boston would open the scoring on the 4-on-4. After Hannah MacDougall's shot missed the net, the puck came to the top of the zone to Gianna Skrelja whose wrist shot hit off the leg of a Norwich defender and found the back of the net.  

Despite the deficit, the Cadets continued to press the offense, but Beacon goaltender Leah Bosch stood tall. Both sides went to the powerplay before the end of the period, neither were successful as UMass Boston went into the locker room with the lead, despite a 13-6 shot advantage for Norwich.

After finishing off the last two seconds of a penalty kill to open the second period, the Cadets continued to press for the tie with Bosch making several saves and a few opportunities that missed the net. Just before the halfway mark, Norwich was granted another chance on the powerplay, which was killed off. Soon after, they would go back to the powerplay again. During that powerplay, UMass Boston's Katie Wilbur would create a shorthanded rush chance that was stopped by Leocadia Clark (Stowe, Vt.). This stop got Clark to the 1,000 save milestone for her collegiate career, making Clark the third goaltender in program history to reach that mark. The first being Norwich Hall of Famer Cindy Fortin '11, and the second being Laurie King '18. 

With eleven seconds to play in the period, Jenna Majewski got a breakaway, where she would extend the UMass Boston lead seconds before the second intermission buzzer, despite the Beacons being outshot 23-12.

Looking to claw back into the game, Norwich continued to press in the third, but could not find an answer for Bosch. After a lot of continuous action, and with Clark pulled for the extra attacker, Norwich would return to the powerplay for the fourth time which got them within striking distance. Neris Archambault (Pepperell, Mass.) and Aimee Headland (Nottingham, U.K.) exchanged passes at the top of the zone, eventually including Madison Anderson (Green Bay, Wis.) as they looked to create a shooting lane. The lane would eventually clear up and Archambault would send a wrist shot passed Bosch to make it a one goal game with 56 seconds to play. After pulling Clark again, Norwich pushed for the tie, but could not solve Bosch before the final buzzer.

Norwich will continue New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) play when they travel to Vermont State Castleton on Jan 26 at 6 PM.