Northfield, Vt. - Castleton traveled to top-seeded Norwich for a rematch of last year's ECAC East championship game, but this time the Spartans met the Cadets in the semifinal round. The Spartans met the same result as last season, falling 6-2 to Norwich.

Castleton finishes their season with a 15-10-2 record, while Norwich improves to 23-2-1 and will play for their fourth consecutive conference championship tomorrow evening at 7 p.m.

Jake Stafford took the loss in goal for the Spartans, making 26 saves and allowing four goals after replacing Erick Cinotti, who allowed two goals and made four saves in 5:34 of play. Chris Czarnota earned the win in net for the Cadets, turning away 19 Spartan attempts.

The Spartans fell behind early on a mental mistake. The Castleton defense made a costly defensive zone turnover. Norwich forward Tory Allen collected the puck and slid it to Colin Mulvey. Mulvey found Travis Janke alone in front and Janke buried the goal to put the Cadets up 1-0 with just 3:45 elapsed in the first.

Norwich scored again just a few minutes later. Blake Forkey notched a goal when he mashed in a puck that appeared to have been covered by Spartan goaltender Erick Cinotti. Forkey stuck his stick in the mix and poked the puck in for the Cadets' second score. After the score, Cinotti was pulled in favor of freshman Jake Stafford.

At the first intermission, the Spartans trailed 2-0 and were outshot 13-6. Cinotti and Stafford combined for 11 saves, while Chris Czarnota stopped all six Spartan attempts.

In the second, the Cadets kept pounding away. With 15:02 remaining in the frame, Pier Olivier-Cotnoir buried a rebound from his knees to put the Cadets up 3-0. Jake Stafford made two lunging saves before Cotnoir was able to lift the puck over the sprawled goalie for the score.

Shane Gorman scored for the Cadets just a few minutes later when the Spartans made another costly defensive zone turnover. Gorman received a pass from the corner and one-timed it past Stafford for the score.

The Spartans got on the board in the second when they got their first full-length power play opportunity. Ryan Frost scored his seventh goal of the season off an assist from Justin Alonzo to give the Spartans their first goal of the evening with 3:50 remaining in the second frame.

Castleton entered the third period trailing 4-1 and in need of a serious comeback in order to extend their season. Senior Brett Zeggil started the rally for the Spartans just 59 seconds into the period. The forward snatched up a loose puck while on the penalty kill and took it down the ice. He toe-dragged past a Norwich defender and dangled his way to a goal that cut the Norwich lead to two.

The Cadets responded quickly, scoring a goal of their own just 40 seconds later. Dean Niezgoda beat Jake Stafford to put the Cadets back up by three scores. He received a pass in the slot and slipped it in glove side to put Norwich up 5-2.

With 3:42 left in the third period, Castleton pulled their goalie in favor of an extra attacker in an attempt to spark some kind of offensive output. The Cadets capitalized with an empty net goal with 2:22 remaining to go up 6-2.  

The Spartans graduate six seniors from their squad, Brad Barber, Justin Alonzo, Ben Schoeneberger, Dan Bell, Brett Zeggil, and Josh Harris. The highly-decorated senior class will end their four year careers with a combined record of 65-33-10.