The opponent was a familiar one for Clarence on Saturday as the Red Devils faced off against Frontier in their last league game before the holiday break. Clarence coach Rick Brooks wasn’t surprised by the one-goal difference in the 2-1 win.
“We play Frontier every year,” Brooks said. “We see them in the playoffs, and we’ve got a history there. They’re a good team; they’re well-coached. We knew that it would be a one-goal game, two-goal game at the best.”
“We were expecting a tough game,” Clarence forward Brett Naylor said. “We were trying to play fast, keep our speed up, play hard on the boards.”
The game remained tied at zero until there was just 5:32 remaining in the second period. It was then that Clarence’s hard work paid off as Nick Amodio scored on the power play to give the Red Devils a 1-0 lead. Azan Dorsett and Mike Faso assisted the goal. It was Dorsett’s first game after an injury that sidelined him for the beginning of the season.
“He certainly handled the puck great,” Brooks said of Dorsett. “And the addition of him with Mike Faso is what made that power play successful. Having those three guys up top, moving the puck, and they’re highly skilled, really did a great job.”
“It was a lot of back-and-forth early in the game,” Naylor said. “And then we just kept playing, playing, playing, and we got a lot of shots in the first period, second period, finally got a goal or two.”
Naylor scored just over four minutes later to put the Red Devils up 2-0. Faso assisted that goal as well.
“I moved the puck up to the point,” Naylor explained his goal. “It was a nice shot, tip, just went over the goalie’s pad. Kinda just going hard to the net.”
It was Naylor’s goal that stood as the game-winning goal when Frontier’s Tyler Flick scored 4:44 into the third. Naylor was happy to be able to help his team in that way, but scoring the game winner isn’t usually his focus.
“It was a good experience,” Naylor said. “I’m just trying to help the team as much as I can, play hard. I’m not too worried about scoring tons of goals — just looking for the win.”
While Naylor and Amodio scored the goals, the defense did its job to allow just 17 shots on goal. Brooks especially liked what he saw from defensemen Ryan Kelly and Aaron Partridge, from the strong defense to how they boosted the offense as well.
“You got those folks on defense and they move the puck out, they can be an offensive threat,” Brooks said. “They’ve got great skating ability. Makes a huge difference.”
The Red Devils played the way Brooks expected them to, and he was very happy with that.
“I think the kids performed well,” he said. “They skated at the tempo I wanted them to skate at; they got pucks into the zone the way I wanted to. We were pretty good in our own end. I don’t think we gave up too many shots on goal. It was tighter than I had hoped, but that was fine. Rather win a tight one than lose one, right?”
“We came out strong,” goaltender Jack Niesyty said. “Our D shut down pretty well in the first two periods. We definitely came out stronger than we did in the first four games, and just kind of were able to put the puck in the net and shut them down coming our way.”
Niesyty made 16 saves to earn his first win of the season as Clarence improved to 2-1-1-1.
“I just kind of try to help the guys out. Tried my best, didn’t have too many shots, but on the shots I did have, I worked hard and just tried to help the team out, get the win,” Niesyty said. “It was my first win of the season. Anthony [Campione] had his win last game, so it feels pretty good to get two wins out of the first five games. It was tough the first three, but we worked hard and we’re just going at it and trying to get the wins.”
“It was a must-win game to keep us in the running for top seed in the division,” Naylor said. “It puts us in a good spot. I think every team in our division now has a loss. We’re back within two points of the leader, so it puts us in a good spot going forward. We just gotta win more games.”
Clarence carries the win into a long break. The Red Devils’ next league game is scheduled for Jan 2 against Lancaster.