The UMass Boston men’s ice hockey team was officially retired from the 2002-03 season when the highly ranked Norwich Cadets exploded in a display of unbridled offense, scoring 12 goals while not allowing the Beacons to score any.

The Cadet squad had 10 different players score goals. Center Kurtis MacLean and winger Vadim Beliaev each had a pair. MacLean had a game-high five points while teammate Phil Aucoin tallied four points (1 goal, 3 assists). Norwich goaltender Mike Boudreau stopped all 14 Beacon shots to register playoff shutout. Beacons Craig Paster (27 saves on 37 shots) and Jeff Riley (10 saves on 12 shots) shared time in the crease

Norwich will next play in an ECAC semi-final match against Salem State at home on Friday, March 7. The other ECAC match up is Babson College versus New England College. The winners of the two games will face one another in the ECAC East final the following day at Norwich.

The Beacons can look back on their season with few bright sides. The roster saw a significant change from the beginning of the season to the end. Such flux in player personnel rarely leads to consistent play, and makes it difficult to build rapport and timing.

The team finished with the low total of 43 goals for the season, while surrendering a whopping 183 goals. Its power play units were anemic (10 goals on 96 opportunities) while its penalty killing saw the opposition score more than once out of every four chances (30 goals in 109 power plays). The highest goal scorer on the squad was Stephen Chin. He was also the highest remaining player in total points.