Courtesy Norwich, Middlebury, St. Michael’s and Vermont Sports Information Officces

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RUTLAND — The Norwich University men’s ice hockey team shut out its fourth straight opponent and avenged its lone New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) loss of the season with a 5-0 victory over Castleton in the Battle of Vermont rivalry on Saturday night at Spartan Arena.

Senior goalie Tom Aubrun (Chamonix, France) made 15 saves to record his fourth straight shutout, eighth of the season and program-record 15th of his career to backstop the Cadets to the victory. Aubrun also extended his shutout streak to 272:40 consecutive minutes. He also became just the fifth goaltender in NCAA Division III history to record four straight shutouts, most recently accomplished last season by SUNY Geneseo’s Devin McDonald.

Norwich (19-2-2, 14-1-1 NEHC) locked up its 20th league regular season title in the last 22 years and home ice throughout the NEHC playoffs with the victory. The Cadets extended their unbeaten streak to 13 straight games with the win. NU’s last loss came to Castleton on Dec. 6 at home in Kreitzberg Arena.

The Cadets had five different goal scorers and 10 players on the scoresheet in the victory. Senior defenseman TJ Dockery (Lockport, N.Y.) had two assists to lead the offense.

Braedyn Aubin (Woodstock, Ontario), Jack Griffin (Duxbury, Mass.), Felix Brassard (St. Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec), Jordan Hall (Anchorage, Alaska) and Taeron Lewis (Winnipeg, Manitoba) each scored a goal as the Cadets claimed the Wolk Cup for the third straight year.

Aubin opened the scoring at the 11:49 mark of the first period, scoring on a power play off an assist from Ryan Boucher. Aubin sniped the top corner of the net after Boucher fed the puck over to him for his fourth goal of the year.

Norwich extended the lead to 2-0 with Griffin scoring his first goal of the season off an assist from Dockery at the 15:54 mark of the second period. The Cadets added a third goal at the 18:51 mark of the third period with Brassard scoring his team-leading 17th goal of the season off assists from Coby Downs (Montclair, Calif.) and Gabriel Chicoine (St. Dominique, Quebec).

The Cadets added two more third period goals with Hall scoring his sixth goal of the season off assists from Brett Ouderkirk (Monkland, Ontario) and Dockery recording his second assist of the night.

Lewis capped the scoring at the 16:44 mark with an unassisted wraparound goal.

Brandon Collett made 39 saves for Castleton before leaving the game with an injury. Kyle Alaverdy came on to make 10 saves in relief. Norwich outshot Castleton 54-15 in the game.

Aubrun improved to 18-2-2 on the season with the victory.

Norwich went 2-for-8 on the power play after Castleton was whistled for 10 penalties and 36 penalty minutes.

Norwich closes out the 2019-20 regular season next Friday and Saturday when it hosts Johnson & Wales on Friday, Feb. 14 at 7 p.m. and then Suffolk University on Saturday, Feb. 15 at 4 p.m. Prior to Saturday’s game, Norwich will celebrate its nine seniors in a special pre-game ceremony.

MIDDLETOWN, CT. — The Middlebury men’s hockey team got back on the winning track with a 4-1 NESCAC road win victory at Wesleyan (10-9-1, 6-7-1) on Saturday afternoon. The Panthers (8-9-3, 6-5-3) are back in action next Friday night with a 7:00 p.m. game against Williams.

Following a scoreless first period, Middlebury got on the board at the 11:48 mark of the second period. Alex Heinritz connected with a deflected shot and placed it into the bottom corner for the 1-0 advantage.

Shortly after, the Cardinals nearly evened the score when Tyler Wyatt’s attempt on a breakaway hit the top right post. With seconds remaining in the middle frame, Wesleyan had another strong chance as Jordan Rose took a pass in front of the net with only the Middlebury goalie to beat, but Brian Ketchabaw made the save as time expired.

It didn’t take long for the Panthers to add an insurance tally in the third. Less than two minutes into the period, Bret Pastor took a shot from inside the blue line that was saved by Cardinal goaltender Tim Sestak. However, the puck bounced back to Brett Dineen, who placed a shot into the top left corner.

Just over seven minutes later, the Cardinals cut the lead in half when Tyler Kobryn was in the right place at the right time, as he corralled a rebound and found the back of the net.

Middlebury made it a two-goal lead once again less than three minutes later when Matt Danner scored on a rebound at the 11:37 mark. The Panthers added some insurance with 4:04 remaining when Emack Bentley wrapped around the goal and passed the puck to the top of the crease, finding an open Tyler Capello for the tally.

Ketchabaw, who was playing in his first game since an injury on January 3rd, made 29 saves between the pipes. Sestak finished with 23 stops for the Cardinals as the hosts held a 30-27 shots advantage.

HOOKSETT, NH. –– The Saint Michael’s College men’s ice hockey team scored five goals in the second period to beat Northeast-10 Conference foe Southern New Hampshire University, 6-2, on Saturday at the Ice Den.

RECORDS
· Saint Michael’s (14-8-2, 10-5-1 NE10), Southern New Hampshire (9-11, 7-6 NE10)

SAINT MICHAEL’S LEADERS
· Junior Niall Foster (Newmarket, N.H./Walpole Express), 1 goal, 1 assist, 18-for-26 faceoffs
· Sophomore Matt Egan (Hingham, Mass./Kimball Union Academy), 2 assists
· First-year Matt Schreiner (Falmouth, Mass./Walpole Express), 1 goal, 9-for-15 faceoffs
· Junior Tyler Dorval (Liverpool, N.Y./Liverpool), 1 goal
· Junior Thomas Flack (Toronto, Ontario/Saint Michael’s Buzzers), 1 goal
· Junior Ethan Hendrickson (Budd Lake, N.J./New Jersey Rockets), 1 goal
· First-year Connor Redden (Southbury, Conn./Team Maryland), 1 goal
· Senior Tim Decker (Liverpool, N.Y./Canterbury School), 40 saves

OPPONENT LEADERS
· Sophomore Joe Fiorino, 1 goal
· First-year George Thurston, 1 goal
· Senior Kurt Gutting, 18 saves in 31:27
· Sophomore JT Kossakowski, 13 saves in 26:59 of relief

GAME FACTS
· Foster extended his point streak to seven games, recording nine points in that span.
· The Purple Knights hold a 41-23-6 all-time advantage over Southern New Hampshire.
· Thirteen Purple Knight skaters recorded at least one point in the victory, with all six goals coming from a different skater.
· Decker earned his 11th victory this season, moving him into a tie with Tyler Bilton ’09, Fred Sunderland ’96, Bill Heney ’92, and Phil Fernandez ’86 for wins in a season
· The Penmen’s goal 2:18 into the third period ended Decker’s scoreless streak at 106:09.

THE ACTION
· After a scoreless first period, the Purple Knights took the lead 35 seconds into the second period on a goal by Foster with assists coming from juniors Paul McAuliffe (Newton, Mass./Kimball Union Academy) and Zach Sullivan (Weymouth, Mass./Walpole Express),
· A shot by junior Andrew Olevitz (Winthrop, Mass./Northern Cyclones) was saved by Gutting, but Schreiner hit home the rebound with 6:08 gone to put the Purple Knight up two goals.
· The Purple Knights scored the third goal seven seconds later when first-year Sam Johnson (Freeport, Maine/Walpole Express) passed to Redden for a goal 6:15 into the period.
· Tyler Dorval scored the fourth Purple Knight goal with 11:27 gone on a pass by first-year Owen Rudicus (Duxbury, Mass./Tabor Academy).
· Flack finished off a five-goal second period with a power-play goal 17:13 into the period with assists coming from Egan and junior Noah Muller (Amsterdam, The Netherlands/Düsseldorfer EG).
· The Penmen scored a goal on a power-play with 2:18 gone in the third period on a shot by Thurston off a junior Kyle Galloway pass.
· Southern New Hampshire scored a second goal 9:28 into the period when first-year Matt Monreal passed to Fiorino, whose shot beat Decker.
· Hendrickson scored an empty-net goal with 18:45 gone on a pass by Foster to give the Purple Knights a four-goal victory.

NEXT SAINT MICHAEL’S GAME
· February 21 vs. Stonehill, 7 p.m.

DURHAM, NH. — New Hampshire scored 30 seconds into the third period to tie the game and added another with 4:46 remaining to take a 2-1 Hockey East win over Vermont Saturday night at the Whittemore Center.

COACH’S QUOTE
“I thought our team played hard tonight, I thought UNH did a very good job as well,” said head coach Kevin Sneddon. “We got ourselves into penalty trouble in the third period, which was disappointing because our team is usually pretty disciplined. As I said to our guys right now, you can’t give a highly skilled power play eight looks at your penalty kill; they’re going to find a way to get one.”

HOW IT HAPPENED
The first period ended scoreless with New Hampshire holding a 14-8 advantage in shots. UVM was 0-for-3 and UNH was 0-for-2 on the power play in the frame.
Simon Boyko rang iron with a wrist shot from the right dot at 10:29 of the second period on a Catamount odd-man rush.
Corey Moriarty gave Vermont a 1-0 lead with a shorthanded goal at 16:03 of the second period. Derek Lodermeier came down the right wing and hit Moriarty on the far post for the defenseman’s second career goal. Matt Alvaro picked up the secondary assist after making a diving play in the defensive zone to move the puck to Lodermeier.
UNH tied the game just 17 seconds into a five-minute power play and 30 seconds into the third period. Max Gildon saw a rebound come to him at the right dot and rifled a shot that beat a sliding Stefanos Lekkas.
Vermont killed the remainder of the lengthy New Hampshire power play with the help of a UNH minor penalty and a pair of ten-bell saves from Lekkas.
Filip Engarås put New Hampshire ahead 2-1 at 15:14 of the third period, powering a loose puck through Lekkas from the low slot. Eric MacAdams and Liam Blackburn assisted on the game-winning goal.

GAME NOTES
New Hampshire finished the game 1-for-8 on the power play with 18 shots on goal with the advantage. Vermont finished 0-for-5 on the night with six power play shots. The Cats picked up 39 penalty minutes to UNH’s 22 minutes.
Lekkas recorded 38 saves in the loss. Mike Robinson made 16 saves to pick up the victory.

UP NEXT | Tickets
Vermont returns to Gutterson Fieldhouse for a Hockey East weekend series with tenth-ranked Providence (14-9-5, 8-8-2 HEA). Both games are slated to begin at 7:05 p.m. on Friday (Feb. 14) and Saturday (Feb. 15) and will stream on CBS All-Access.