Rutland, Vt. – No. 4 seed Castleton exploded for three goals in the final period to finish with a dominating 6-1 victory over fifth seed New England College on Saturday evening in a physical ECAC East Quarterfinal matchup at Spartan Arena. 

The Spartans advanced to the ECAC East semifinals for the third straight season with the emphatic win and improve to 15-9-2 on the year. They will take on top seed Norwich on Friday evening. The Pilgrims finish their season with a 9-13-4 mark. 

Senior Josh Harris continued his excellent play, scoring twice and dishing off an assist for his fifth straight game with at least one goal. Defenseman Ryan Delorme handed out three assists and Brian Greene scored once and recorded an assist for two points. Junior Eric Cinotti was solid in net, making 18 saves to earn his 13th win of the season. 

Castleton opened the scoring at 7:45. Dan Bell won a faceoff in the offensive zone and sent it back to Greene at the left point. He slipped a pass to Charles Bando waiting by the far post and Bando put it home for the 1-0 lead. 

In the second period Greene scored at 7:16, ripping a slap shot over the right shoulder of goalie Shawn Sirman from just inside the blue line off assists from Ross Herzog and Brad Barber. The Spartans made it 3-0 less than three minutes later when Harris took a pass from Delorme and went five-hole from the right slot. 

NEC got on the board just 1:50 into the third period as Ben Souders cleaned up a puck in front of the net. However, 30 seconds later Justin Alonzo extended the Castleton lead to 4-1 off a nice feed from Harris. 

Ben Schoeneberger got into the action at 11:40 with the Spartans on a 5-on-3 power play. The senior took a pass from Delorme and ripped a slap shot from the left point past Sirman. Harris concluded the scoring with his second goal at 14:44. 

Sirman finished the evening with 33 saves for the Pilgrims as they were outshot 39-19 on the day. 

The Spartans will now travel to face top seed Norwich on Friday evening.