Losses piled up for Clarence’s hockey team during its recent stretch of games, though none will have as profound an effect on the squad as the one that didn’t occur on the ice.

Red Devils assistant coach Bob Armstrong, who has been with the team in that capacity since it made its Federation debut during the 2006-07 season — and was the team’s head coach during Clarence’s club years leading up to its Federation status — died Saturday, leaving a huge void in the program.

“We’ve got to go out and win our next game, but keeping our minds on that right now is going to be extremely tough; what happened Saturday puts everything in perspective,” coach Rick Brooks said.

Clarence’s first game without Armstrong on the bench will be a non-league affair Thursday against Amherst, but the Tigers would be anything but a pushover in the best of circumstances. As it is, the Red Devils will enter the game seeking their first win since a 12-3 triumph over Lockport on January 14, as they’ve suffered three straight losses since.

Clarence’s most recent loss was perhaps the toughest to swallow, as the Red Devils were upended by Lancaster Thursday in overtime, 4-3. It was the third time this season that Clarence had lost after being taken to overtime, and also marked the third time Clarence had held a lead and ultimately lost the game.

Rob Lang scored all three goals for Clarence, giving Clarence a lead all three times — including a 3-2 advantage on a power-play opportunity with about 5:30 to play in regulation. Unfortunately, after playing the vast majority of overtime to a draw, Lancaster sneaked the puck over goalie Devin Paluh, who was sprawled out on the ice following a scramble in front of the net.

“Sometimes it’s important to learn how to lose before you learn how to win,” Brooks said. “That said, this was a very tough loss. Quite honestly, I thought we had it after Robby’s third goal, but penalties came back to hurt us again.

Thursday’s loss, tough enough since Clarence was ahead of the Redskins in the standings, stung even more due to the fact that the Red Devils were looking to bounce back from a sub-par 4-1 showing against division leader Frontier three days earlier.

After falling behind 2-0 one minute into the second period, Nick Smith’s power-play goal at the 10:52 mark breathed new life into the Red Devils. Unfortunately, Frontier answered shortly thereafter with a power-play tally of its own to retake a two-goal lead.

Nate Martina, who returned from injury to play his first game of the year, stopped 24 of the shots he faced in net.

“Nate played well for it being his first game of the year; he stopped a couple of breakaways that we shouldn’t have given up,” Brooks said. “I think the big thing we’ve got to learn from this game is that when you’re a top team, everyone comes ready to play you. You’re not going to catch anyone off guard.”

Clarence entered last Monday’s game licking its wounds from a second 4-3 overtime loss, this time to Niagara Wheatfield on January 17. The Red Devils twice led by two goals despite being outshot each period, with Lang once again recording all three of Clarence’s tallies, including one on the power play.

Niagara Wheatfield had the last laugh, though, scoring the game winner just 35 seconds into overtime on a breakaway after intercepting a puck in the middle of the rink.

“That game was one of the few times we were outplayed all three periods,” Brooks said. “They came to play. When Robby scored the third goal to give us a 3-0 lead, we hoped we could just hang on.”

Clarence (5-3-0-3 Large Schools Division I) will close out its week Saturday against Lancaster, and then travels to face Lockport next Saturday, Feb. 11, in its regular season finale.

“Our challenge going forward is going to be playing with and keeping a lead, so that we can finish these close games off,” Brooks said.