Rutland, Vt. - The Spartans earned their second overtime victory of the season, scoring less than a minute into the extra period and beating the St. Anselm Hawks 3-2 Saturday afternoon at Spartan Arena.

Castleton junior Jade Werger (Maple Ridge, B.C) scored 22 seconds into overtime to give the Spartans the victory. After stealing the puck at mid-ice, she came in on a breakaway and ripped a slap shot over the left shoulder of the Hawks goalie senior Amy Zappen (Huntington Beach, Calif.).

Castleton junior goaltender Katharyn Dembowski (Elkridge, Md.) turned away 38 of the 40 shots she faced including one in overtime to help the Spartans climb back to .500 overall at 4-4 and improve to 4-2 in the ECAC East.

After a scoreless opening 20 minutes, Castleton wasted little time getting on the board in the second period. Junior forward Nicole Ruman (Riverside, Calif.) poked in an unassisted goal as she wrapped around the net just 54 seconds into the period.

St. Anselm tied it up halfway through the second on the power-play as senior Molly Corl (Danvers, Mass.) received a pass from line-mate Kahtryn Picarello (West Roxbury, Mass.) on the left side of the circle and put it behind the outstretched Dembowski at 11:22.

Castleton retook the lead just over five minutes later when junior Danielle Roberts (St. Albans, Vt.) fired a pass from the left side of the blue line to Meagan Hulbert at the right post (Barre, Vt.), who redirected it into the net for the 2-1 lead.

The Hawks knotted it back up with just five minutes left in the third when Castleton's defense gave up the puck right in front of their own net. Rosemarie Giarrusso (Royal Palm Beach, Fla.) picked up the loose puck and netted the equalizer.

Neither team would score again until Werger late-game heroics.

Zappen turned away 19 of the 22 shots she faced for the Hawks as they dropped to 6-4 overall and 4-4 in the ECAC East.

Castleton returns to action on Dec. 10 when they travel to New England College for a 1 pm contest.