The line of Connor Quinn centering brother Spencer and Brandon Clark accounted for five goals and ten points as Churchville-Chili defeated the Genesee Ice Devils 6-4 in the Section V high school hockey play-in round.
Connor Quinn began the scoring as he scored on a two-on-one break using Clark as a decoy before roofing a shot over the goaltender’s shoulder at 5:53 of the first period. Defenseman Cam Shuman celebrated his birthday with an assist along with Spencer Quinn.
A little over three minutes later it was Spencer Quinn racing down the left wing before throwing the puck on net where it glanced off the inside of the goaltender’s pad and into the net for a 2-0 lead. Clark and David Andolina assisted.
The Saints made it 3-0 at 8:03 of the second as Zach Olsen and Jordan Alves worked a perfect give-and-go from behind the net with Olsen scoring his team-leading 12th goal of the season.
Genesee fought back with a goal late in the second period just as a power play expired but before the Saints player could get back into the play.
The Ice Devils scored twice more in the third period 89 seconds apart to tie the game 3-3 leading to a Saints timeout.
“We wanted to get our team refocused,” Saints head coach Brian Young said. “When you play a team ranked lower than you, teams tend to play down to that level. Ninety-nine percent of what we were doing were mental mistakes, not physical ones. We just needed to get them refocused.”
It worked as the Saints retook a one-goal lead with a shorthanded goal as Spencer Quinn was aggressive on the forecheck, took the puck away, skated around the back of the net and showed patience as he drifted to the slot before firing it home.
It became 5-3 just 47 seconds later as Spencer Quinn passed across the slot to Clark for the easy tap-in at 8:18 of the third.
The Ice Devils scored a power play goal with less than five minutes remaining in regulation to again cut the lead to just one goal, but Clark ended their comeback hopes putting a pass from Spencer Quinn inside the left post for the sixth and final tally.
The victory marked the 100th in the ten year coaching career of Young, an event marked with a cake and signs marking the accomplishment.
The Saints advanced to the Section V quarterfinals against Webster-Thomas, a team they lost to twice during the regular but once in overtime and the other a one-goal affair.
