NORTHFIELD, Vt.— Junior Sami Molu (Toronto, Ont.) made 37 saves in goal and Norwich University used a pair of power play goals to defeat No. 9 Babson College, 3-1, in a key Little East Conference (LEC) men's ice hockey game Saturday afternoon inside Kreitzberg Arena.

With the setback, the Beavers had a six-game winning streak snapped and dropped to 16-3-2 overall and 11-2-1 in the LEC. Norwich extended its unbeaten streak to six games and improves to 14-5-3 overall and takes a firm hold on first place in the Little East with an 11-2-2- mark.

Senior Ryan Murphy (Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich.) scored the lone goal for the Beavers with assists from classmate Ian Driscoll (Middleton, Mass.) and junior CJ Beals (Chelmsford, Mass.). Senior Nate Mueller (Summit, N.J.) finished with 13 saves in the setback.

Seniors Nick Cordeiro (Mississauga, Ont.) and Devon Thibodeau (Pelham, Ont.) and junior Boyd Stahlbaum (Peterborough, Ont.) potted goals for the Cadets, and classmates Nick Foster (Amherst, Mass.), Zach Ophoven (Burlington, Ont.), Ben van Waterschoot (Whitby, Ont.) and Colin Elliott (Peterborough, Ont.) and first-year Frank D'Ancona (Fort Myers, Fla.) collected assists.

The Cadets took an early lead on a goal by Cordeiro. Ophoven picked up a loose puck in the Norwich defensive zone after a Babson shot was blocked and flipped a lead pass to Cordeiro who had snuck behind the Babson defense, and Cordeiro slipped a backhander through Mueller's legs for the breakaway goal at 5:36.

The hosts doubled their lead six minutes later with their first power play goal of the afternoon. After Mueller made consecutive saves on shots from short range by D'Ancona and Elliot, Stahlbaum stuffed one in from behind the net off the back of Mueller's pads for the 2-0 lead.

Babson got back into the game less than two minutes later with a transition goal. Beals sent a cross-ice pass to Driscoll along left boards, who fed a streaking Murphy in the middle, and Murphy's quick shot from between the face-off circles beat Molu stick side inside the left post at 12:46 to cut the margin to one goal. Despite outshooting the Cadets 19-9 in the first 20 minutes, the Beavers were down one heading into the second period.

Tight defenses prevented scoring most of the second period, with Babson outshooting Norwich 9-5. With the clocking winding down in the stanza, the Cadets capitalized on a Beaver penalty with just three seconds remaining on the clock as a slap shot by Thidodeau from right point on a feed from van Waterschoot beat Mueller to make it a 3-1 game entering the third period.

Babson would not go down without a battle, outshooting the Cadets 11-2 in the final frame, but could not solve Molu. The Beavers put three shots on goal during a power play attempt midway through the period to no avail, and pulled Mueller with just over four minutes remaining in favor of an extra skater. Molu made three more saves down the stretch and the Cadet defense blocked three shots to preserve the victory.

The visitors finished with a whopping 39-16 advantage in shots on goal. Special teams were key as Norwich was 2-for-2 on the power play while Babson was 0-for-3.

The Beavers will play their final regular season home games next weekend at the Babson Skating Center, hosting UMass Boston on Friday at 7 p.m. and UMass Dartmouth Saturday at 4 p.m. Norwich plays its final three regular-season games on the road, beginning next Friday at Western Connecticut and Saturday at Keene State.

GAME NOTES
• The Beavers are 31-50-8 all-time against Norwich in a series that dates back to the 1975-76 campaign.
• Sophomore Evan Brown (Little Silver, N.J.) had his nine-game point streak snapped,
• Mueller surrendered more than two goals for just the fourth time in 16 games this season.
• Babson had its nine-game road winning streak (7-0 in away games, 2-0 in neutral sites) snapped