NORTHFIELD, Vt. – The Vermont State University Castleton men's hockey team fell short to Norwich University 3-2 on Saturday night.

Johnny Johnson opened the scoring for the Cadets to take a 1-0 lead halfway through the opening period. Norwich extended their lead with a late goal to end the first period 2-0 in their favor.

The Cadets continued their offensive attack but Josh Ward provided a strong period outing with 15 of his 31 saves coming in second to shut out the Cadets and keep Castleton in the game.

Castleton came out with high intensity to start the third period and it paid off with Logan Dapprich and Luke Chakrabarti setting up Emmett McHardy for his sixth goal of the season to get Castleton on the board and trail the Cadets by only one goal.

As the teams battled up and down the ice, the Cadets tallied another goal to go back up by two with three minutes left to play in the game. 

The Spartans didn't let Norwich's goal put them down as defensive pair Cam Reid and Zach Papapetros connected with Chakrabarti who hit the back of the net for his 11th goal on the year to cut Norwich's lead back to one with a minute left to play.

Castleton made a strong effort to find the tying goal but would be held off as the Cadets secured their fourth straight victory.

VTSU Castleton returns home for a two-game series against New England Hockey Conference opponent UMass Boston, with game one beginning Friday, January 24 7 p.m.