Clippers blow away Falcons

WOONSOCKET — The undefeated Cumberland hockey clinched the No. 1 seed and home-ice advantage through to the Division II title series with Friday night’s win over South Kingstown, but the Clippers still had a point to prove Saturday night against title contender Cranston West.

Even though they’d been winning games the last few weeks, the Clippers hadn’t put together a complete game since defeating Ponaganset last month.

Thanks to two goals and three assists from junior forward Jackson Shevlin and a goal and four assists from linemate Aidan Clarey, the Clippers skated away with a 6-0 victory over the ill-disciplined Falcons at Adelard Arena.

“I thought we played a complete game,” Cumberland coach Mark Andreozzi said. “From the outset, we were moving our feet and attacking them with our forecheck. We were getting good, quality scoring chances and we were playing well in our own end. We were just attacking and getting rebounds. Once they started getting penalties, we couldn’t get a rebound after that.”

Cumberland (15-0 Division II) will finish the regular season Friday night when playoff-bound Rogers/Middletown/ Rocky Hill co-op comes to Adelard Arena for a 7:30 contest. Saturday, sophomore goalie Jack Byrne recorded his sixth shutout of the season and he’s now allowed just 11 goals in 15 games.

Cranston West (11-5 Division II) will finish either third or fourth depending on the result of Saturday night’s game between PSW and Ponaganset.

It took the Clippers all of 6:33 of the first period to score the only goal they would need to remain undefeated. Cumberland’s top line, as was the case throughout the night, was involved in the goal as Clarey and Shevlin created a goal for Jordan Cullion.

Cullion delivered his 12th goal of the season just two minutes later thanks to more good work from Clarey and Shevlin.

And then the Falcons started going to the penalty box, which allowed the Clippers to work on their power play. The first of Cumberland’s four power-play goals came 2:57 into the second period when Clarey setup Shevlin for a tally.

The Clippers added three power-play goals in the third period to finish off the rout. Clarey scored from the left circle just 5:42 into the period. Shevlin took a pass from Clarey to score with a two-man advantage and then Dominic Rousseau finished the scoring at 11:30 with a power-play goal. Defenseman Ryan Taylor earned the assist.

“It was great that we were able to show some poise,” Andreozzi said after the Falcons were called for 17 penalties. “We had some infractions, but we did our jobs and continued to try and play the game. Toward the end of the game we were just working on the power play. You want to be playing your best hockey toward the end of the year.”