Spence’s five-point night gives Blades 2-0 series lead

AMHERSTBURG – Blenheim Blades captain Craig Spence put on
quite a show Saturday night scoring three goals, and assisting on two
others, as the Blenheim Blades beat the Amherstburg Admirals 6-2 in
Amherstburg to take a 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven PJHL Stobbs
Division quarter-final series.
The two teams will be right back at it Sunday for Game 3 at 7 p.m.
at the Blenheim Memorial Arena, with Game 4 set for 7:30 Tuesday
back in Amherstburg.
After neither team scored in the first period, Spence put the Blades
on the board, with his team having a two-man advantage at 3:45 of
the middle 20 minutes, by scoring a powerplay goal, assisted by Tate
Bowden and Justin Ewald.
The goal was Spence’s first of the series.
Jake Goudreault tied things at 1-1 at 12:11, but that didn’t last long
as Joey Hayter netted his second series goal 62 seconds later to put
the Blades ahead 2-1.
Spence and Ryan Sanders set up the goal.
Then with just 30 seconds left in the period Spence made it 3-1
Blenheim, with an assist going to Bowden.
The Blades added three more goals in the third period with Ewald
scoring at 11:03 from Spence and Breck Raine; Spence on a powerplay
at 13:25, with assists going to Darby Lemieux and Owen Reeve, and
Ewald adding shorthanded empty net goal at 17:02, with Brad
McAlpine assisting.
Cole Vaillancourt had Amherstburg’s other goal at 15:27 of the
final period.

BLADES BITS: Owen Lemieux was in goal for the Blades, and picked
up his second series win, stopping 38 of 40 Amherstburg shots, while
his teammates fired 31 on the Amherstburg net…Blenheim went with
the same lineup as Game 1 with Will McCraken, Remi Steen, Gavin
Meriano, Cameron Robertson and Ethan Chittle, who is out with a
season-ending injury, not dressed…The game was a penalty filled
affair with 21 called, including two fighting majors, two misconducts
and two game misconducts…The Wheatley Sharks beat the
Mooretown Flags 5-0 Saturday night to lead that series 2-0…In playoff
games played to date the nine victories have gone to the top four
finishing teams – Lakeshore, Essex, Wheatley and Blenheim – over the
bottom four – Amherstburg, Walpole, Dresden and Mooretown…The
three stars of the game were Spence, Owen Lemieux and
Amherstburg’s netminder Josh Courtney…Attendance was 328.