Blades blast Wild 8-1

WAPOLE ISLAND – Blenheim Blades captain Craig Spence scored a
goal and set up five others, and teammates Justin Ewald, Landon
Hoskins and Ryan Sanders scored two goals each as the Blades
defeated the Walpole Island Wild 8-1 Thursday night on Walpole
Island.
The victory moved the Blades back into second place in the PJHL
Stobbs Division with 29 points, one up on the idle Lakeshore
Canadiens and Wheatley Sharks.
Blenheim’s next action will be Saturday at 6 p.m. when they host
the Dresden Kings on Dave Baldwin Hall of Fame and Alumni Night.
Prior to the game four members of the Blenheim News Tribune staff
will be inducted into the Hall. Entering are former Blades netminder,
current executive member, and owner of the Blenheim News Tribune
Peter Laurie, the paper’s sports writer Mike Bennett, photographer
Paul Cundle and Dave Stepniak, who forever has been behind
composing and printing of the Blades programs.
The two goals for Ewald gives him nine on the season to go with 21
assists for 30 points, while Spence now has 15 goals and 18 assists for
33 points. Ewald also had one assist.
For Sanders the goals were his sixth and seventh of the year, with
Hoskins now at five. The Blenheim native has scored four times since
being obtained recently from the Wild.
Defenceman Brad McAlpine had the other Blenheim tally, his ninth
of the season. McAlpine also had an assist.
The Stobbs Division’s leading point-getter Tate Bowden picked up
three assists to give him 37 points, good for fourth place over-all in
the 63-team PJHL.

Other assists went to Andrew Goulet, with a pair, Breck Rainey and
winning netminder Owen Lemieux.
The sixth-place Wild actually opened the scoring when Adrian
Filipowitz scored with the game only three minutes and 55 seconds
old.
BLADES BITS: Blenheim outshot the Wild 61-19…Three of the Blades
goals came on the powerplay…There was a steady stream of players
heading to the penalty box with 106 minutes called…47 of those went
to the Blades…Not dressed for Blenheim were defencemen Matt
Hayter and Remi Steen, and forwards Darby Lemieux and Beau
Moison, all out with injuries, along with veteran forward Zach Van
Boxtel, who was not available for the game.…APs defenceman Carson
Lippert and forward Dominic Goure suited up for Blenheim, and
newcomer Jack Lewis played his first game as a Blade…Attendance
was 137