NORTHFIELD, Vt.- In a battle between the two top teams in the New England Hockey Conference (NEHC), the tenth ranked Norwich University Men’s Ice Hockey team defeated top ranked Hobart 2-1 Saturday afternoon at Kreitzberg Arena.

In an evenly played first period, it was the Statesmen who landed the first punch in this heavyweight bout. Junior Wil Crane cleaned up a rebound of a Tanner Daniels shot on an odd man rush to give Hobart the lead after 20 minutes.

Even though the Statesmen held an 11-7 shot advantage in the middle frame, it was the Cadets who would take the lead. First, came sophomore Clark Kerner (Kansas City, Kan.) scoring his team leading eighth goal of the season to knot things up. Later in the period, Hobart’s Tristan Fasig took an interference penalty that wiped out a potential goal. On the resulting man advantage senior Brady Gaudette (Braintree, Mass.) would break the tie. The goal gave Gaudette his second point of the game after assisting on Kerner’s goal. Kerner returned the favor by notching an assist.

Hobart poured on the pressure in the third period to keep their undefeated season alive but senior goaltender Drennen Atherton (Winter Haven, Fla.) had other ideas. Atherton stopped all 17 Statesmen shots in the period giving him 36 for the game, in addition to 14 blocked shots by the Cadets.
“Drennen was unbelievable tonight,” Head Coach Cam Ellsworth said. “We got some timely saves and massive blocks, and the guys really hunkered down at the end.”

Norwich will look to extend their hot start to 2023 when they play host to UMass Boston Friday Jan. 13 at 7 PM.