GORHAM, MAINE- The Norwich Men's Ice Hockey team continued its first Little East Conference (LEC) road trip Saturday afternoon when they paid a visit to Southern Maine (USM) and emerged victorious courtesy of a first-period burst.
After an early feeling-out process for both sides, both goaltenders, Loic Morin and Bryce Walcarius (Aylmer, Ont.), got put to the test as they traded saves. Just before the halfway point, coincidental minors took effect, before the Cadets went on a four-on-three man advantage, where they broke through.
After a Frank D'Ancona (Fort Myers, Fla.) faceoff win, Cooper Bertrand (Caledon, Ont.) exchanged passes with Ocean Fancy (Orleans, Mass.) at the top of the zone. Fancy sent a pass to the netmouth where Colin Elliott (Peterborough, Ont.) deflected it home to open the scoring.
Two and a half minutes later, once the teams resumed five-on-five play, Norwich extended their lead. Samuel Larsson (Stockholm, Sweden) defended a Husky rush, poking the puck away from the USM attacker, springing Boyd Stahlbaum (Peterborough, Ont.) on a counter the other way. Stahlbaum centered it to Jed Brazo (Homer, N.Y.) to give the Cadets the two-goal lead. The Huskies looked to close the deficit on a late power play, but Walcarius shut the door going into the locker room.
Both netminders shone in the middle frame, starting with Morin, making several early saves to keep the game close. Walcarius responded by backstopping consecutive successful penalty kills. By the end of the period, Morin stopped all ten Norwich shots, and Walcarius stopped all thirteen Husky shots, with the score holding firm.
The USM penalty kill came up big to open the third period, killing off an early five-on-three. After the successful kill, the Huskies pressed with several opportunities that misfired.
With another set of coincidental minors being served, and the goalie pulled, the Huskies cut the Norwich lead to one in the final minute with Gavin Simopoulos banging it home after a failed clear. USM had another chance on a power play and the goalie pulled, but the Cadets preserved the 2-1 win, the first of the season for Walcarius.
"We were not our best tonight and made some decisions that hurt us," Head Coach Dominick Dawes '04 said. "We need to work toward a more consistent effort and being hard to play against. But it was nice to bounce back on the road and get 3 points."
Norwich will continue their LEC road trip when it takes on UMass Dartmouth for the first time since 2008 on Friday, November 21, at 5:30 p.m.
