Rutland, VT-Castleton jumped all over the Red Dragons by netting five goals in the first period and never looked back as the Spartans defeated SUNY Cortland 12-1 on Friday night in a non-conference game. Castleton made the most of their power play opportunities, with six of their tallies coming by way of the man-advantage. The Spartans have not lost since they played New England College, the second game of the season on November 18.
Castleton put five goals into the net in the first period, two of them coming in the first two minutes of the game. The Spartans offensive fire power was led by Steve Culbertson. Culbertson scored a hat trick in the first, two on put backs from rebounds and another during a 5-on-3 power play. Jeff Alexander and Evan Romeo also contributed with goals for Castleton in the first period. SUNY Cortland made a goalie change after Castleton went up 4-0, deciding to go with Jon Bova instead of starter Jason Lojewski. Castleton was only slowed down offensively by the switch though, continuing to capitalize on opportunities in front of the net, adding two more goals the second period. Steve Smiddy netted a lead pass from Kirk Bolduc and Jared Lavender scored on a wrist shot near the left circle to make the Spartan's lead 7-0. The Red Dragons got on the board with Buddy Anderson by taking advantage of a 4-on-3 power play to make the score 7-1 after two periods of play. Castleton tallied 5 more in the third period to make the final score 12-1. The Spartans received power play goals from Matt Link, Brandon Heck, and two from Eric Curtis. Jeff Beecher scored the lone even strength goal for the Spartans in the third period.
Jeff Swanson earned the win in net for Castleton making 15 stops in two periods. Jay Seals came into the game in the third and made three saves for the Spartans. Cortland played all three of their goalies with Lojewski making five saves, Bova making 16 saves, and Mike Mistretta, who came in with a little more than 10 minutes to play, made six stops for the Red Dragons.
The Spartans improved to 4-1-2 with the non-conference victory while SUNY Cortland fell to 5-7-1. Castleton is back in action Sunday when they travel to Wentworth Institute of Technology at 2:00 pm, who were 5-3-2 going into Friday night. The Spartans return home next Wednesday, December 13 when they host Southern New Hampshire at 7:00 pm, the last game of 2006. The Red Dragons of SUNY Cortland is off until January 9, when they host Hobart.
