NORTHFIELD, Vt.—Seniors Troy Starrett (Bellingham, Mass.) and Nik Tasiopoulos (Norwell, Mass.) both scored third-period goals, and sophomore Jamie Murray (Scituate, Mass.), the Tournament Most Outstanding Player, stopped 38 shots lifting second-seeded Babson College to a 2-1 victory over top-seeded Norwich University in the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) East Championship Game on Saturday night at Kreitzberg Arena.

With the victory, Babson (22-4-2) claimed its second consecutive conference title and earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Norwich, which dropped to 19-6-3, must wait to see if they earn one of three at-large selections on Sunday night.

The Beavers (No. 6 USCHO.com/No. 7 D3hockey.com), who trailed 1-0 entering the third period after dropping both regular-season meetings by the same score to the Cadets, tied the game just 12 seconds after the second intermission on Starrett's sixth goal of the season. Junior Mike Driscoll (Milton, Mass.) won the face-off and Starrett converted a feed from senior Ryan Heavey (Andover, Mass.), who was named to the all-tournament team, to make it 1-1.

Babson took the lead just past the midway point of the third period after Starrett was tripped up carrying the puck into the offensive zone. The Green and White capitalized on just its second power play of the game as junior Andrew Bonazza (Dartmouth, Nova Scotia) intercepted a pass behind the net and fed Tasiopoulos in the crease for his 12th goal of the season at the 10:29 mark for a 2-1 edge.

As they have throughout the season with a third-period lead, the Beavers defense tightened things up over the final nine and a half minutes. The Cadets (No. 2 D3hockey/No. 4 USCHO.com) were only able to muster two shots on goal following a Babson slashing penalty at 14:12, and Murray made three saves on senior Travis Janke (Swift Current, Saskatchewan) inside the final 31 seconds to secure the victory.

Tyler Piacnetini (South Weymouth, Mass.) scored Norwich's only goal of the night, converting a feed from Janke at 12:42 of the first period. The Cadets held a 14-3 edge in first-period shots but were stymied by Murray, who made 27 saves over the first two periods to help the Beavers stay within striking distance.

Senior Chris Czarnota (Wakefield, Mass.) finished with 14 saves for the Cadets, who held a 39-16 edge in shots on goal.

The Green and White were 1-for-2 on the power play and killed off all three of Norwich's extra-man opportunities.

GAME NOTES: Tasiopoulos was selected to the ECAC East All-Tournament team, and was joined by Erik Lyrvall, Dean Niezgoda and Piacentini of Norwich, as well as Peter MacIntyre of UMass-Boston…the Beavers have now won six ECAC East titles (1984, 1992, 2007, 2009, 2013, 2014), and will be making their 16th NCAA Tournament appearance…Babson is 22-34-6 all-time against Norwich…the teams have met seven times over the last two seasons with each squad winning three times to go along with one tie…the Beavers are 10-3-2 in one-goal games this season and 16-2-1 when allowing two goals or less...Babson is 11-1-1 this winter in games played on Saturday.