NORTHFIELD, Vt. – It was a wild, high-scoring affair on the road for the Skidmore College men's hockey team, falling to #2/2 Norwich 7-5 in NEHC action at Kreitzberg Arena on Saturday.
 
The Thoroughbreds finish the NEHC weekend with the split, standing at 7-6-1 in conference play and 8-11-2 overall. The Cadets, ranked No. 2 in both the USCHO.com and D3hockey.com polls, clinched the regular season title with the victory, standing at 14-1 in the league and 19-1-2 overall.
 
For the Thoroughbreds, freshman Quincy Gregg tallied two goals to lead the way. Senior Anthony Bird scored a goal and added two assists. Sophomore Adam Moodie and senior Marc Cibelli each scored a goal and added an assist. Freshman Chris Javens helped on two goals, and freshmen Jack Barton, Andrew Popp, Matt Wolf, and Owen Campbell, along with sophomore Corey Morgan, each tallied an assist. Senior Jack McDonald made 31 saves in net in the decision.
 
Seven different Cadets scored goals. William Pelletier led Norwich with three assists to go with his power-play goal. Anthony Flaherty added two assists to go with his goal. Brian Rowland and Paul Russell each tallied a goal and an assist, with Todd Jackson and Alec Brandrup wrapping up the scoring. and Braeden Osrepchuk made eight saves in the first 33:05 of play, making way for Ty Reichenbach, who made 14 saves in the final 26:55 for the victory.
 
The Thoroughbreds struck with two early goals to temporarily hush the Kreitzburg Arena crowd. Gregg opened the scoring at the 9:31 mark with a power play goal, assisted by Bird and Wolf. The Thoroughbreds doubled the score at the 16:44 mark with Cibelli tapping home a rebound off an initial shot from the point by Javens. Osrepchuk got a glove on Javens' shot, but Cibelli was first to the rebound sitting to the left side of the net for the finish.
 
Norwich got one back at the 19:11 mark off the face-off. Russell won the draw back to Rowland, who sent an outlet pass up the right wing that Jackson skated down, getting by the Skidmore defender. He skated in and roofed a quick wrist shot over the shoulder of McDonald to cut the lead to 2-1.
 
Norwich kept that momentum through the start of the second period, scoring two goals in the first four minutes to take its first lead of the game at 3-2. Rowland scored on a slap shot from the blue line, then Flaherty gave the Cadets the lead with a power-play finish off an assist by Pelletier.
 
Undaunted, Skidmore marched right back and answered, tying the game at the 6:49 mark. Gregg got his second of the game, off an assist by Popp and Javens. Norwich retook the lead with a goal by Pelletier at the 9:17 mark, but Skidmore responded with two goals by Bird and Moodie to retake the lead, 5-4, after a six-goal second period.
 
Norwich tied the game at five on a Brandrup goal at the 3:21 mark, then took the lead for good on an Erikson goal at the 12:24 mark. Pulling the goalie late, Skidmore had an excellent chance to tie the game, on a shot from just left of the goal by Bird that was tipped away by Reichenbach. The Thoroughbreds tried to knock in the rebound, but the Norwich defender got to the puck and sent the puck away to the Skidmore end.
 
A minute later, Russell scored on the empty net goal, despite a terrific defensive attempt by junior Connor Pelkey. He and Piacentini were one-on-one with the empty net, and Pelkey parried away Piacentini's shot. Piacentini got to the rebound, however, and fed Russell for the insurance goal.
 
There were plenty of power play goals to go around. Skidmore went 2-for-6 with the man advantage, while Norwich went 4-for-7.
 
Norwich avenged its only loss of the season with the win, with Skidmore winning 3-2 in overtime on Nov. 18 in Saratoga Springs.
 
The Thoroughbreds will return home for its final contest of the season at the Saratoga City Rink, when they host Castleton next Friday at 7 p.m. Skidmore will honor its five seniors: Cibelli, Bird, McDonald, Connor Van Arnam, and Sam Bloom, before the opening faceoff.