NORTHFIELD, Vt. – The Vermont State University Castleton men's hockey team (1-10 NEHC) was defeated by New England Hockey Conference opponent Norwich University (6-1-2) 8-3 on Friday. 

Norwich wasted no time getting on the board with Cooper Bertrand lighting the lamp on the powerplay for his first goal of the season in just under three minutes in the opening period. The Cadets struck again shortly after their first goal to give them a 2-0 lead in just five minutes of play.

Castleton didn't let the early goals affect their game. Chance Heaphy dropped off a pass to Zach Trempner to pick up and skate down the ice for a 2-on-1 in Castleton's favor. Trempner sauced the puck towards Jackson Edwards who sniped one past the goalie to get the Spartans on the board halfway through the first.

Gaining the momentum in their favor, Castleton's top line took the ice and in just 25 seconds after their first goal, Andrew Stefura connected with Luke Chakrabarti for his 10th goal of the season to bring the score back to level at 2-2.

The Cadets capped off a high-scoring first period with Nick Foster slapping a shot from the blue line to hit the back of the net for his first goal of the season to give Norwich the edge after 20 minutes of play.

Norwich extended their lead with two goals at the tail-ends of the second period to give them a 5-2 lead. Simon Brenter started his first game of the season, seeing two periods of action and stopping 23 shots he faced.

Castleton continued to work to get back into the game. First-year Trevor Castino connected with Trempner, who put one away for his second goal of the year and cut into the Cadets' lead.

Norwich powered through in the third, scoring three more times to finalize the score at 8-3, securing game one of the series.

The two sides return to action tomorrow at 4 p.m. at Kreitzberg Arena.