Blades big third period clinches series with Amherstburg

The Blenheim Blades trailed the Amherstburg Admirals 5-4 going into the
third period Thursday night at the Blenheim arena, but three goals in five
minutes at 39 seconds proved enough for an 8-5 PJHL Stobbs Division victory for
the home club, and moved the Blades on to a match up with the Essex ’73s.
The win was the Blades fourth in the best-of-seven quarter-final series with
the best-of-seven semi-final likely to start Tuesday in Essex at 7 p.m. Future
dates will be announced sometime this coming weekend.
Scoring goals in bunches happened twice for Blenheim, as they opened the
first period with tallies by Darby Lemieux at 4:28 and Justin Ewald at 5:01.
The Admirals Mitchel Demelo had sandwiched a goal between Lemieux’s and
Ewald’s at 4:54.
Zach Van Boxtel made it 3-1 Blenheim at 15:42, with Amherstburg’s cutting
the Blenheim lead to 3-2 before the first period ended.
The middle 20 minutes was pretty much all Amherstburg with Finnigan Russett
scoring twice, and Archer once, for a 5-4 lead going into the third period.
Joe Hayter scored the lone Blenheim goal in the period.
It didn’t take long in the third period for the Blades to punch their ticket to the
semi-finals as Tate Bowden tied things at 5-5 at 45 seconds, and Brad McAlpine
made it 6-5 Blenheim just 11 seconds later.
Cameron Robertson scored at 2:51, and Hayter got his second of the night at
5:39, to wrap up the scoring for the game.
Hayter now has six playoff goals, as does Ewald, with Bowden and McAlpine
sitting with two apiece, and Lemieux, who later left the game with an injury,
and Robetson one each.
Craig Spence assisted on three goals, Ewald two, and Van Boxtel, Matt Hayter,
Joey Hayter, Andrew Goulet, McAlpine, Gavin Meriano and Breck Rainey one
each.

BLADES BITS: The Blades had not won a playoff round since the 2916-17
season when they beat Dresden Kings in six games in the first round, and then

lost in the semi-finals in six games to the Lakeshore Canadiens…Besides the
Blades and Essex, Lakeshore has reached the semi-finals and will play the
winner of the Wheatley Sharks and Mooretown Flags series that Wheatley
currently leads three games to one with Game 5 Friday at 8 p.m. in
Wheatley…Owen Lemieux started in goal for Blenheim and Joe Costea for
Amherstburg, but each was replaced by Jake Vancoillie for the Blades and Josh
Chartrand for the Admirals as the goal totals grew…Blenheim outshot
Amherstburg 55-33, including 27-9 in the third period…The three stars of the
game were Joey Hayter, Spence and Bowden…The ice sponsors were Blenheim
Canadian Tire and Chatham Victory Ford…Attendance was 517.