Rutland, Vt - The Castleton Spartans women's hockey team used a three-goal second period to surge past the Cortland St. Red Dragons en route to a 4-2 victory on Saturday at Spartan Arena, and the program's first-ever 2-0 start.

The Spartans found themselves trailing 1-0 early in the second period, but scored unanswered goals in the frame to go up 3-1 on the Red Dragons. The two-goal cushion was cut in half early in the third period when Cortland St. found the net to make it 3-2, but Castleton answered with 6:00 left in the game to insure their second victory of the young season.

Cortland St. freshman Maggie Corbert (Queensbury, NY) picked up her first goal of the season as she got a loose puck in the neutral zone and wristed a shot to the glove side of Castleton's keeper Paula Stephens (Seattle, Wash.), slipping it past for the score to give the Red Dragons a 1-0 lead.

The Spartans answered back at the 5:30 mark of the second period as senior Jade Werger (Maple Ridge, B.C.) scored her second of the year. The forward slipped into the Cortland St. zone on a breakaway and cranked a wrist shot past Tessa Muilenburg (Wasilla, Alaska) to tie the game at 1-1. Anna Daniels (Falun, Sweden) and Dani Roberts (St. Albans, Vt.) each picked up an assist on the play.

Senior defenseman Eileen Coyne (No. Attleboro, Mass.) scored her first of two goals on a wrist shot from the point on a Spartan power play to make it 2-1.  Coyne scored again with just under a minute left in the period on a slap shot from the point. Her second goal of the game turned out to be the game-winner.

The Red Dragons cut into the lead early in the third period as sophomore Chelsie Hausberger (Buffalo, NY) slapped a shot that was initially stopped by Stephens. The puck got loose and trickled through traffic into the net, narrowing the score to 3-2.

The Spartans added late insurance with just five minutes left in the game on a 2-1 breakaway.  Daniels took the puck down the near boards into the offensive zone and then passed it to Nicoline Jensen (Hellerup, Denmark) who buried a wrister over the goalie's stick side shoulder to make the final score 4-2.

The Spartans improve to 2-0 for the first time in program history and will return to action Friday Nov. 2 when they travel to Norwich for their North Atlantic Conference season opener.