As Clinton forward Nolan Provost skated hard toward the Williamsville East goal midway through the second period, three Flames defenders moved between the senior and the net.
Provost flipped the puck to the outside of his stick and kept moving fast, throwing off the WE defense by shifting left and skating around the goal. He passed to teammate Corbin Melie, who found an opening to shoot low as a number of Warriors collapsed on goal for help. Melie’s shot bounced out, but teammate Tyler Karuzas reacted quickly and scored for Clinton’s third goal.
Clinton continued its domination on offense for a 5-1 win over Williamsport East, the state’s No. 6 ranked team, one spot above Clinton. The Warriors’ display of speed and balance - five players scored and five had assists - should move Clinton up in this week’s poll.
A nice crowd showed up at the Clinton Arena Saturday morning to see the game and that included the school’s Pep Band. The musicians had plenty of opportunities for rousing the CCS fans as Clinton came out moving and aggressive to secure win No. 6.
Luke Bouse, Antonio Femia and Provost went right to the Flames goalie with early shots; his 42 saves kept the score down considerably for Clinton. Provost took a hard smack at goal on a power play that was stopped before Brian Hall set up a shot by Melie that also was caught.
With 7:15 left in the first period Aiden Walter and Karuzas worked the puck side to side and then sent it to Provost, who blasted one in for the game’s first score. The Flames moved the action down near the Clinton goal for a bit, although Warriors goalie Dan Frank had a much easier game than did his counterpart.
WE tied it up with 3:10 before the first break on an outside shot that got lost in the crowd of players in front of Frank. Thirty seconds later Frank gloved a hard hit and Melie and Ethan Carr directed the puck back on the Flames side of the ice.
Not content to take a 1-1 tie into the first intermission, Clinton blitzed the goal and with 25 seconds left, Derrick Jewel scored to make it a 2-1 lead after one period.
Clinton’s pummelling of the Flames goal continued from the onset of the second period, where most of the action took place within feet of the visitor’s net. Noah Ciancio took a point-blank shot that was deflected and then Carr hit one from the left that was saved but bounced back in play. Provost was...