RUTLAND, Vt. The Vermont State University Castleton women's hockey team swept Salem State with a 4-2 victory on Saturday. The Spartans move to 5-8-1 in the New England Hockey Conference.

Castleton was granted their first powerplay of the game and made the most of it. Taylor Adams and Rainey Lay connected with Meg Aiken who scored her third goal of the season and in back-to-back games to give the Spartans the first lead of the contest.

The Vikings tied it up, with Lexi Warner winning the faceoff to Brooke Dineen, who took a quick shot to hit the back of the net to bring the score level at one after one period of play.

Moa Carlsson took the spotlight in the second by scoring a shorthanded goal to take back the lead for the Spartans. This was Carlsson's fifth shorthanded goal of her career, making her the all-time leader in program history for most shorthanded goals scored. 

Carlsson lit the lamp for the second time with Rachel McNeil connecting with Alex Johnson who put a quick shot on net that rebounded to Carlsson for her to bury the play and extend Castleton's lead to three. The Stockholm, Sweden native scored a pair of goals in both games of the series to give her a team-leading nine goals on the year.

Shortly after Castleton's third goal, Salem State was granted a powerplay opportunity. Brooke Dineen scored her second goal of the game to cut Castleton's deficit to one heading into the final period.

The Spartans' penalty kill played a tremendous game, killing off five of six of Salem's powerplays. Victoria Bakopanos picked up her seventh win on the year with a calm 18 saves.

Lay tallied her second assist of the night connecting with Johnson who solidified Castleton's series victory over Salem State with her sixth goal of the season. 

VTSU Castleton travels to Henniker, N.H. to take on NEC on Friday, February 7th at 4 p.m.