Boxscore

NORTHFIELD, Vt. – The fourth-ranked Norwich Cadets came back from an early two-goal deficit to defeat the Manhattanville women's hockey team, 4-2, in the final game of the ECAC East Conference regular-season on Saturday afternoon at Kreitzberg Arena.

Senior Shannon Coffey (Malden, Mass./North American Hockey Academy) and sophomore Katie Little (Victoria, British Columbia/Team British Columbia) scored for the Valiants, as the visiting team tried to upset the top-seed in the upcoming conference tournament. Norwich countered with a pair of goals from Sophie Leclerc and late tallies from Stephanie Invernizzi and Julie Fortier.

Manhattanville scored two goals in 21 seconds to take a 2-0 lead in the first period, as senior Holly Nonis (Brampton, Ontario/Saint Thomas Aquinas) and sophomore Lauren Nutkevitch (Montreal, Quebec/Dawson College) found Coffey in front of the net for her seventh of the season. Right after the next draw, the Valiants got the puck into the Norwich zone and found an opening as the newly formed line of sophomores Ella Hubley (Santa Monica, Calif./LA Selects) and Lynsey Schill (Waterloo, Ontario/Kitchener Rangers (PWHL)) along with Little capitalized on Norwich netminder Cindy Fortin coming out of the net and allowing Little to score her 12th of the season at 12:23.

Norwich tied the contest late in the period as Leclerc netted both goals, including the game-tying goal as time expired in the period. Manhattanville finished the first frame with a 13-11 edge in shots.

Neither team scored in the middle frame, but Norwich began to attack and had the puck in the Valiant zone for a majority of the time. The Cadets held a 13-5 advantage in shots in the middle stanza.

The Cadets added two more goals in the final period to take the lead and earn the win as Invernizzi scored the game-winner at the 5:06 mark with assists from Jacqueline Perez and Elle Kadel.  Midway through the final period, Julie Fortier scored an insurance goal to cap off four unanswered goals for the home team.

In between the pipes, both netminders were tremendous as sophomore Emy Cote (Saint-Hubert, Quebec/Dawson College) made 26 saves for Manhattanville and Cindy Fortin stopped 21-of-23 Valiant shots for Norwich.

Manhattanville (16-7-2 13-4-1 ECAC East) concludes the regular-season with the loss and will likely take on Castleton State in the quarterfinal round of the ECAC East Conference Tournament next Saturday at Playland Ice Casino with a time still yet to be determined. Please check GoValiants.com for complete tournament information and game preview.