RUTLAND, Vt.- After a short week, the Norwich Women's Ice Hockey team returned to New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) action Friday night when they travelled through the green mountains to take on intrastate rival Vermont State Castleton. In the contest, several players notched multipoint performances en route to a 4-0 victory, for the second shutout in as many starts for Madison Brunet (Timmins, On.).

In the early going, the Cadets put Spartan goaltender Victoria Bakopanos to the test outshooting Castleton 8-1 in the first half of the frame. After a brief flurry by the home team, Norwich would break through. Rylie McIntyre (Brunswick, Maine) intercepted a clearing attempt along the boards in the neutral zone. After nothing came of the initial rush, Norwich would try again with Olivia Boyer (Saint Paul, Minn.) centering the puck to Livia Brooks (Walpole, Mass.) for the icebreaker.

The Cadets kept their foot on the gas in the second stanza. Play would even out as both sides would go on the man advantage, neither yielding result. In the last five minutes, Norwich widened the gap. Alex Leslie (Irishtown, New Brunswick) skated the puck herself from the defensive zone into the offensive end. Soon after, Sophie Zemianek (St. Albans, Vt.) took a shot from the left point that got blocked down before Anna Lisac (Euclid, Ohio) passed the puck through her legs to Breanna Ricker (Laconia, N.H.) who slid the puck by Bakopanos to give the Cadets a two-goal lead after forty minutes.

Six and a half minutes into the third, Norwich widened their lead even further. Zemianek grabbed an airborne puck and skated around the zone as she looked for an opening before putting the puck on net. Bakopanos made the original save, but Taylor Girouard (Burlington, Mass.) was waiting on the doorstep to clean up the rebound. The Spartans were awarded back-to-back powerplays where they grabbed momentum, but Brunet would shut the door. Needing to close the gap, Castleton pulled Bakopanos for the extra attacker. In the final minute, McIntyre sank the empty netter to seal the victory.

The Cadets will close out the weekend doubleheader at Spartan Arena on Jan. 11 at 3 PM.