Blades down two games to none to Essex in semi-finals

The shots were 36 for each team, however five found the back of
the Blenheim Blades net, with just two doing the same into the Essex
’73s cage, as Essex defeated Blenheim 5-2 in Game 2 of the PJHL
Stobbs Division best-of-five semi-final for a 2-0 playoff series lead.
Essex will host Game 3 Saturday at 6:30 p.m., with Game 4 back at
the Blenheim Memorial Arena Sunday at 7.
Nate Dowling led the way for the ’73s with a pair of goals, with
singles going to Luke Sherk, Kale Couvillon and Gabriel Piccolo.
Joey Hayter, with his seventh of the playoffs, and Breck Rainey, with
his first, had the Blenheim goals.
Craig Spence and Zach Van Boxtel assisted on Hayter’s powerplay
marker, and Ryan Sanders and Brad McAlpine did the same on
Rainey’s PP tally.
BLADES BITS: The crowd was by far the biggest of the year totaling
909 to bring the numbers of fans to two exhibition games, 21 league
games and four playoff games this season to 11,757…The 50/50
winning total was also the highest this year at $835…Owen Lemieux
was in net for the Blades for the second straight game against Essex,
while Wyatt Sloetjies did the same for the ’73s…Not dressed for the
Blades were Darby Lemieux, Alec Webster and Ethan Chittle, injured,
along with Nick Cameron, and Remi Steen…There were 16 penalties
called in the game, all minors, with nine going to Blenheim…Each
team had two powerplay goals…Earlier in the week Spence was
named the Stobbs Division’s best defencemen…Spence played in 36 of
the 42 regular season games, scoring 25 goals and adding 49 assists
for 74 points and second place in the division’s scoring race…So far in
seven playoff games leads the division with 14 points thanks to four
goals and 10 assists…The ice time sponsors were South Kent Wind and
Food Basics Blenheim.