Blades blanked by Lakeshore in regular season finale

The Blenheim Blades wrapped up their 42-game PJHL Stobbs
Division regular season Thursday night falling to the Lakeshore
Canadiens 3-0 at the Blenheim arena.
The victory moved the Canadiens back into first place in the division
with 72 points, one more than the now second-place Essex ’73s. Both
teams have one game left, Lakeshore at home Friday night against the
Wheatley Sharks, and Essex on the road in Amherstburg Saturday to
face the Admirals.
A Lakeshore win or tie will give them first place no matter what
Essex does Saturday.
As for the Blades, they finish in third place thanks to 58 points and a
28-12-1-1 records. The win and point totals are both franchise single
season records for the team that started play in the 1965-66 season.
Next up for the Blades is a best-of-seven quarter-final series with
Amherstburg starting Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Blenheim arena. Game
2 will be next Saturday at 8 in Amherstburg, with Game 3 back home
next Sunday at 7, and Game 4 Tuesday, Mar. 5 at 7:30 in
Amherstburg.
The Blades and Lakeshore played a scoreless first period, with
Lakeshore’s Julian Gignac and Spencer Higginbottom scoring in the
middle 20 minutes, and Bryce Scarlett wrapping up the 3-0 Canadiens’
win in the third.
BLADES BITS: Blenheim players that did not dress – captain Craig
Spence and Breck Rainey, both were sick, and Eathan Chittle, Owen
Reeve and Everatt Swayze…Spence ended up second in Stobbs
Division scoring with 74 points, two behind Mooretown’s Dylan
Dupuis, while Tate Bowden was 15th with 65 points…Prior to the
opening faceoff three of the Blades overagers – Bowden, Darby

Lemieux and Zack Van Boxtel – were presented with their jerseys in
framed cases…With Spence, the team’s fourth overager, not being
present he will get his framed jersey at a later date…The shutout was
only the second time this season that Blades were held off the
scoreboard…The other was a 4-0 loss to Essex Oct. 24…Jake Vancoillie,
the game’s second star, was between the pipes for the Blades, and
faced 39 shots, while his teammates fired 27 on the Lakeshore
net…Thursday’s ice sponsor was the Ridge Landfill Community
Trust…Attendance was 277, which was the lowest of the
year…Through 21 Stobbs Division home games and two exhibition
games the Blades have drawn 9,335 fans.