Rutland, VT-The Castleton State College men's hockey team won for the sixth straight game, and for the first time as a nationally ranked team. Castleton defeated SUNY-Potsdam 5-1 in non-conference action on Tuesday evening. The Spartans scored four times in the first period and tacked on one more in the third to cruise to their eighth victory at the Rutland Regional Fieldhouse.

Joe Huchko scored a pair of power-play goals, dished out one assist, and was instrumental in the Spartans' perfect night of penalty killing to lead the team to victory. Matt Link opened the scoring for Castleton less than five minutes into the game on the power-play. Just over two minutes later Huchko scored the game winner converting for the second power-play goal of the evening. Steve Culbertson scored his 13 th goal of the season, as the speedy forward out-skated the Bears and scored short-handed. Travis Martel would tack on the final goal of the period, once again converting a power-play and giving the Spartans a 4-0 edge entering the first intermission. Ryan McCarthy scored just 58 seconds into the second period to give the Bears hope. Some superb goaltending by Vince Cucarro kept Potsdam alive in the second period as he made several outstanding saves. Huchko would score the lone goal of the third period, once again on the power-play.

With the win Castleton improves to 11-3-3 and is back in action Friday night when they play host to UMass-Boston at 7:00 PM. Potsdam State falls to 5-13 and is also back in action Friday at seven when they host SUNYAC foe, Buffalo State.