Norwich suffers overtime loss to Wisconsin-Stevens Point in D3 title game

Junior goalie Tom Aubrun posted a 1.70 goals-against average and .929 save percentage. (Doug Sasse/d3photography.com)

Two years ago, David Robertson watched as the seniors on the Norwich University hockey team enjoyed the best sendoff ever.

He watched the captains -- senior forwards Tyler Piacentini (South Weymouth, Mass.), Austin Surowiec and William Pelletier -- lead the team to a 27-1-3 season, one that culminated with a Division 3 championship.

A perfect ending.

As the lone senior captain on this year’s edition -- and the only senior regular in the lineup for first-year coach Cam Ellsworth -- he was hoping for a similar farewell. But that seemed unrealistic, almost to the point of absurd, as the Cadets limped into the holidays with a record of 6-5-1, absent from the national rankings.