NORTHFIELD, Vt. – The late season surge continues for the Skidmore College men's hockey team with a 2-2 tie at #11 Norwich University Saturday evening in Vermont.
 
The Thoroughbreds (6-17-2, 4-12-2) went 4-1-1 to close out the regular season, finishing sixth. Skidmore will face Babson in the New England Hockey Conference quarterfinals. The Thoroughbreds lone loss in the final six games was a 3-2 overtime decision to the Beavers on Feb. 3.
 
The playoff field will be announced Sunday.
 
Despite the tie, Norwich (17-6-2, 13-3-2 NEHC) edged Hobart, 28-27 in the final point standings, locking up the No. 1 seed and home ice throughout the NEHC Playoffs which start on Saturday, Feb. 17.
 
Despite outshooting Skidmore 47-26 in the game, the Cadets were only able to put two goals past the Thoroughbreds' starting goalie Brian Kowalski, who made 45 stops.
  
Skidmore took a 1-0 lead at the 16:54 mark of the first period with Chris Javens scoring on a 3-on-2 rush off a nice setup from Owen Campbell and Matt Wolf. Javens finished the rush off perfectly with a quick wrist shot from the top of the slot that beat Braeden Ostepchuk to the right side of the net for his second goal of the year.
 
Norwich finally answered at the 15:29 mark of the second period with Felix Brassard scoring his seventh of the season on the power play, finishing off a rebound after an initial save on Colby Downs' shot.
 
Downs gave Norwich the lead at the 7:58 mark with a perfect snipe over the glove of Skidmore's goalie from the top of the left faceoff circle.
 
However, Skidmore answered just 12 seconds later with Matt Muzyka sniping a shot under the cross bar and over Ostepchuk's shoulder from the left wing off assists from Connor Pelkey and Corey Morgan.
 
Neither side was able to break the dead lock the rest of the way or in the five-minute overtime.