Men's hockey advance to ECAC East Tournament

Norwich men's ice hockey at home during a game against Skidmore College on Feb. 23 in Kreitzberg Arena: Norwich went on to win the playoff game by a score of 5-1. Norwich will host the ECAC East semifinals on Friday, Mar. 1 and the championship on Saturday, Mar. 2 (Neely photo)

By Ronnel Daniels
Norwich Guidon Sports Editor

Sophomore Matt Schmidt scored two goals to lead top-seeded Norwich University to a 5-1 victory over eighth-seeded Skidmore College in the quarterfinal round of the ECAC East men's ice hockey tournament Saturday evening at Kreitzberg Arena.

Schmidt gave Norwich a 1-0 lead 1:17 into the first period when he grabbed the puck in front of the net on the left side and beat Skidmore goalie Jon Olson for the goal.

Junior forward Ed Boudreau from Weymouth, Mass., made it 2-0 when he converted a Mario Chinelli pass for the goal and a 2-0 lead.

Sophomore forward Chris Petracco scored Norwich's third goal just 23 seconds into the second period, when Boudreau dropped the puck off for him and he beat Olson. Sophomore forward Aaron Lee made it 4-1 at 15:28, when he broke in alone on Olson for the goal. Schmidt added a third period score for the 5-1 final. Olson made 40 saves for the Thoroughbreds, 2-20-3 overall. Schieve made 19 saves for Norwich, 22-4-0.

Norwich will host the ECAC East semifinals on Friday and the championship on Saturday at Kreitzberg Arena.

On Saturday, February 23, number one seed Norwich will host the eighth seed Skidmore (ECAC East Quarterfinals) at 7:00.

In other hockey news, Kurtis Mclean, a freshman from Kirkland Lake, Ont., was named the ECAC East Player of the Week after scoring the game-winning goal in overtime in Norwich's 3-2 win over Williams on Friday.

Mclean scored the lone goal in a 3-1 loss to Middlebury on Tuesday and leads the nation with 27 goals. Kevin Schieve, another freshmen from Rocky Mountain House, Alb., was named to the ECAC East Honor Roll for his efforts.

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