GENEVA, N.Y.- The Norwich Men's Ice Hockey team concluded their weekend series against top ranked Hobart Saturday afternoon with a 4-1 defeat.

It was a back-and-forth start to the game, as the two teams traded waves of possession putting Maverick Goyer and Sami Molu (Toronto, On.). Just passed the halfway mark of the period, the Statesmen jumped ahead with a Connor Elliot goal. 1:09 later, the Cadets would answer with a Matt Harvey (Fort Covington, N.Y.) goal off a feed from Hayden Heinrich (Richmond Hill, On.).

Early in the second period, after an elongated Hobart press, Luke Aquaro would break the deadlock in the opening minute of the frame. Just 2:06 later, Easton Ryan extended the Statesmen's advantage through mass confusion. Sensing the urgency, the Cadets pressed but could not solve Goyer keeping it a two goal game after forty.

With momentum from a carryover powerplay, Hobart held the territorial advantage early in the third, eventually drawing another penalty and converting on it making the score 4-1. Despite that blemish, the Norwich penalty kill would come up big by killing off a five-minute major without allowing any more goal, with two of those five minutes played at five-on-three keeping it a three-goal game where the result held. In total, Molu ended the day with 36 saves, while Bryan O'Mara (Syracuse, N.Y.) had four shots with Nick Cordeiro (Mississauga, On.), Cole Fagan (North Andover, Mass.) and Joe Schubert (Oconomowoc, Wis.) notched three each.

The Cadets will continue to road trip through the New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) next week when they make a stop at Babson for a seismic weekend series that gets started Friday Jan. 31 at 7 PM.