Blades beat Amherstburg 7-4, tie Lakeshore for second

The red-hot Blenheim Blades defeated the Amherstburg Admirals 7-4 Thursday night at the Blenheim arena to climb into a second-place tie in the Provincial Junior Hockey League Stobbs Division with the defending Schmaltz Cup champion Lakeshore Canadiens.

    Both teams have 20 points and will go head-to-head Sunday at 7 p.m. at the Blenheim arena.

   Blenheim has a 10-7-0-0 record and has won seven of their last nine starts.

   The Blades jumped into a 2-0 first-period lead on goals by Jaxon Boucher, his first of the season, and Zach Van Boxtel, his seventh, with the Admirals coming back to tie things at 2-2 after 20 minutes thanks to scores by Allan Djordjevic and Layne Crispin.

   Braeden Armstrong put Amherstburg up 3-2 at 3:42 of the second period before the Blades got goals from Tate Bowden (11th) on a powerplay at 6:21, Ben Brooks (1st) at 12:34, and Van Boxtel again at 19:39.

  Darby Lemieux scored his second of the season at 3:45 of the third period to give his club a 6-3 edge, with Mitchell Demelo cutting the gap to 6-4 on a powerplay at 8:22.

 Blades veteran Connor Wright then iced the win with a shorthanded, empty-net goal with24 seconds to play. Wright now has four tallies on the season.

  Austin Drew, Alex Webster, and Lemieux each had two assists for the Blades, with single helpers going to Brooks, Wright, Ben Barnard, Ian Campbell, Sam Warriner, and Bowden.

   BLADES BITS: Not dxressed for Blenheim were Alex Edwards and Ayden McKinlay…The Blades outshot Amherstburg 61-26…The Amherstburg goalie was ex-Blade Massimo Agostini, while Owen Lemieux was between the pipes for Blenheim…Amherstburg took 10 of 16 minor penalties…The Blades did not win their 10th game of the season until Dec. 19 last year…[i]Special guests of the Blades for the game were members of the South Kent Minor Hockey Association…Attendance was 301…Sunday’s ice sponsor was Willow Ridge Golf and Country Club.