(Courtesy of Norwich University Sports Information)

            NORTHFIELD, Vt. – The Norwich University women's ice hockey team got goals from five different players to cruise to a 5-0 victory over the University Southern Maine in the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Women's East Tournament Semifinals on Saturday afternoon.

            The win was the third straight, and 15th in the last 16 games, for the Cadets who improve to 21-3-3 and advance to their fifth straight ECAC East Championship game appearance.  The Huskies, who upset third-seeded Salve Regina University last Saturday to move on to the semifinal, finish the campaign 8-13-6.

            Senior forwards Stephanie Invernizzi (Hingham, Mass.) and Jackie Perez (San Gabriel, Calif.), as well as junior forward Haley Gibson (Richmond, Ontario), each had a goal and an assist to lead the Cadets.

            Despite carrying the play and holding a 13-2 shot advantage after the first period, Norwich failed to solve Southern Maine sophomore goalie Liz Bergstrom (Chanhassen, Minn.).

            In the second period, the Cadets continued to wear the shorthanded Huskies who only had 14 skaters dressed.  NU finally got on the board with a goal by junior forward Emily MacKinnon (Kirkland, Quebec) at the 6:05 mark.  MacKinnon slipped the puck behind Bergstrom finally after a long scramble in front of the net where Nicolette Gosselin (Barre, Vt.) and Lucie Manhartova (Prague, Czech Republic) both had chances stoned by Bergstrom.

            Exactly four minutes later, Perez pushed the lead to 2-0 when she beat Bergstrom after following up her own shot.  Invernizzi also picked up an assist on the goal after feeding the puck over to Perez on the right wing.

            Junior forward Tori Charron (Tecumseh, Ontario) finished off the second-period scoring and stretched the lead to 3-0 with a power-play goal for her Division-III leading 30th goal of the season at the 19:37 mark.  Charron slapped the puck past Bergstrom from the bottom of the right faceoff circle after the USM goalie made a save on a shot from Jillayne DeBus (Howell, Mich.). Renee Lortie (Cornwall, Ontario) also recorded an assist on the goal.

            Invernizzi made it 4-0 at 7:12 into the third period when she redirected a initial shot by Marie-Philip Guay (Longueuil, Quebec) in front of the net.  Gibson capped the scoring at the 14:54 mark of the third period with a power-play goal on a beautiful tic-tac-toe passing set up from Perez and Brittany Sharman (Ayer's Cliff, Quebec).

            Norwich outshot Southern Maine 38-10 for the game. Senior goalie Kelly Fisk (Hannibal, N.Y.) turned aside all 10 shots she faced to pick up her third shutout of the season and improve to 9-2-1 overall.  Bergstrom stopped 33 shots for USM to finish the season at 7-9-4.

            The Cadets will face the winner of today's second semifinal between Manhattanville College and the University of Massachusetts Boston on Sunday (3:00 p.m.) as they look to capture their fourth ECAC East Tournament title in the last six seasons.