Rutland, Vt. - It was a special day at Spartan Arena, as the Spartans hosted their annual Pink the Rink game on Saturday afternoon. It was made even more special by Brie Narodowy, who registered her first career hat trick to lead Castleton to a 6-2 victory over Nichols. 

Castleton used all three goalies on their roster, with the trio combining for 17 saves. Paula Stephens was the goalie of record, finishing with 13 saves and the win in net. Tori Gianformaggio took the loss for Nichols, despite making 56 saves. 

In the first period, Castleton took an early lead on Narodowy's first tally. Rachel Bombardier threw a shot towards net from the right circle, and the captain got a stick on the puck, redirecting it past Gianformaggio to put the Spartans ahead 1-0 just 47 seconds into the game. 

The last minute of play saw a flurry of action, with three goals in the final 50 seconds. Narodowy tallied her second after Taylor Steadman drove to the net. Steadman fired a shot that was saved, but sat in front of the net, where Narodowy lifted it over the sprawled keeper to put Castleton ahead 2-0 with 49 seconds to play.

Nine seconds later, the Bison responded with their first tally of the game. Tawny Buelow found Grace Murphy streaking down the right flank. Murphy ripped a shot from the right slot that Jess Cameron lunged to save. The rebound skirted to the left slot where Talia Hohmann was waiting to bury the puck. The Bison tied the game 13 seconds later on a goal from Kayla Collins. The senior defender tallied her first score of the season to lock the game at 2-2 just 27 seconds remaining in the first.

Castleton continued to dominate the possession of the puck in the second period, outshooting the Bison 19-6 in the frame. Just over four minutes into the period, Castleton regained the lead. On a power play chance, the Spartans cycled the puck to the right point where Lisa Buratynski ripped a pass to the back post. Bombardier got a piece of it to send it across the goal mouth where Narodowy was waiting to light the lamp. The captain finished the puck off for the first hat trick of her career, giving the Spartans a 3-2 lead.

Later in the frame, Anna Daniels added to the lead, scoring her 11th goal of the season to put the team ahead 4-2. The sophomore stripped a Nichols defender along the boards to the right of the goal, turned the puck back towards the center, and ripped a heater that went bar-down to give the Spartans a two-goal advantage. 

In the third, Castleton continued to pepper the Nichols goal, tallying 19 shots in the frame. Just over five minutes into the period Lisa Kilroy added to the Spartan total. Nicoline Jensen and Anna Daniels received assists on the play. For Jensen, it marked her 16th assist of the season, breaking the Castleton single-season record. The record had held since the 2004-05 season when Steph Purinton tallied 15 on the year.

The Spartans added a sixth goal to their tally with under a minute remaining when Taylor Skelton buried a power-play goal off assists from Allie Howard and Kimberly Gosselin. The goal marked Skelton's first in a Spartan uniform, and Howard's assist extended her points streak to four games. The goal made it 6-2 in favor of Castleton, which they held out for the final 50 seconds of play.

Castleton finished the game with a perfect 5-for-5 success rate on the penalty kill and tallied power play goals on two of their eight man-advantage chances. The Spartans improve to 11-7-1 on the season, and improve to 6-3-1 in the ECAC East. With their sixth conference win, the team matches their conference win total from all of last season, and the squad still has six conference contests remaining.

Castleton will return to action on Friday, Jan. 31 when they travel to Worcester, Mass. to take on Holy Cross in conference action.