RUTLAND, Vt. – The Vermont State University Castleton women's hockey team hosted Elmira College for its 16th annual Pink the Rink event Friday evening.  The Soaring Eagles secured a 6-2 victory over the Spartans to improve to 13-3-1 in the New England Hockey Conference. Castleton dropped to 7-9-1.

Elmira got ahead with two goals in the opening period of play.

Castleton responded with Moa Carlsson playing a tipped pass to Alex Johnson, who ripped her shot into the top corner to give the Spartans their first goal of the game and trail only by one at the end of the first period. 

Victoria Bakopanos made her 20th net start for the Spartans. She provided 24 saves, including 11 big stops in the second period. 

The Soaring Eagles were led by Emily Lenzen, who scored Elmira's next goal and finished with two goals and two assists in Friday's contest. Elmira scored three times on the powerplay to catapult themselves to a strong lead.

Johnson lit the lamp once more with the help of Rachel McNeil and Olivia Carter to give Castleton their second goal of the game and put the score at 5-2. 

Lenzen scored the game's final goal and finalized the score at 6-2 to take game one on their two-game series.

The two sides battle it out again tomorrow at 2 p.m. in the final game of the regular season.