Shorthanded Blades drop series opener to Petrolia 6-2

PETROLIA – The Blenheim Blades opened their PJHL Tier 2 Western
Conference best-of-seven championship final series with the Petrolia
Flyers Saturday night missing nine regulars, and ended up on the short
end of a 6-2 score.
Game 2 will be Sunday night in Blenheim at 7 p.m.
The Blades hit the ice with just 14 skaters, including AP defenceman
Owen Reeve.
Not dressed were Tate Bowden and Trent Amaro, suspended; Ryan
Terry, Sebastian Stubberfield and Brett Wegrzyn, injured; Jeff Carey,
working; Seth Henderson, previous commitment; Jared Delaey, school
and Cameron Hazzard who chose not to play in the Tier 2 playoffs.
Then in the second period the Blades lost high-scoring forward Evan
Wells to an injury.
Petrolia led 2-1 after the first period, and 4-1 after 40 minutes.
Clay Dolbear scored four times for Petrolia, including a shorthanded
empty net goal with 61 seconds to play, with ex-Blade Michael Vanek
and Daniel Gibson getting the other two tallies.
Captain Ben Barnard had both Blenheim goals, with assists going to
Zach Van Boxtel, Sam McKinlay, Wells and Alec Webster.

BLADES BITS: Jake Vancoillie started in net for Blenheim and played
the first two periods, with Caleb Pinsonneault coming on in the
third…The Lakeshore Canadiens and the Essex 73’s are tied 1-1 in their
best-of-seven Stobbs Division championship series with Game 3 in
Lakeshore Sunday…The Flyers had a huge crowd on hand for the
contest – 437.