NORTHFIELD, Vt. (Dec. 31) – Freshman forward Travis Janke had two goals to help lead #4 Norwich to a 3-2 win over Nichols in the first round of the 2011 Northfield Savings Bank Holiday Tournament on Friday at Kreitzberg Arena. Nichols evens out at 5-5-1 on the season while the defending national champions improve to 6-2-1.

Janke opened the scoring just a little over eight minutes into the game when he took a wrist shot from the point that found its way through traffic in front of Nichols' goaltender Jacob Rinn (Warwick, R.I.) and into the back of the net to give the Cadets a 1-0 lead.

Norwich extended its lead just 2:42 later when Kyle Thomas put home a loose rebound after Rinn made two initial saves off shots from Pier-Olivier Cotnoir and Janke. The power play goal was Thomas' fifth of the season.

However, Nichols cut the deficit to 2-1 with 52 seconds left in the first period when Matt Sayer (Lowell, Mass.) scored his 10th goal of the season on a 5-on-3 power play advantage with assists from Zach Kohn (Hartland, Wis.) and Will Munson (Corona, Calif.).

Janke tallied what would prove to be the game-winning goal at the 17:35 mark of the second period, on a power play, off assists from Greg Eskedjian and Francois Gatien.

Nichols answered back just 40 seconds later when Danny Greiner (Columbus, Ohio) scored his first goal of the season. But, that's as close as the Bison would get as neither side was able to tally a goal in the third period.

Alex Dubois picked up the win in goal for Norwich. The sophomore made 20 saves to improve to 6-2-1 on the season. Rinn was saddled with the loss for Nichols to drop to 2-3-1 on the year while turning aside 35 shots.

Norwich was 3-for-7 on the power play, while Nichols was 1-for-6.

The Cadets advance to the championship game where they will meet #10 Manhattanville after the Valiants downed #7 Adrian, 6-2 in the first semifinal of the afternoon.

Manhattanville's Mike Henrici scored his first two goals of the season and Lem Randall added a pair of goals as well to lead the Valiants' offense.

Norwich and Manhattanville will drop the puck at 7 p.m. after the conclusion of the consolation game between Adrian and Nichols, which starts at 4 p.m. at Kreitzberg Arena.

Story courtesy Norwich Sports Information

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