Blades beat winless Lakers 5-1
WALLACEBURG – The Blenheim Blades travelled to Wallaceburg Wednesday night and defeated the winless Wallaceburg Lakers 5-1 in Provincial Junior Hockey League Stobbs Division action.
The win, sparked by three goals by 16-year-old rookie Cam Symons, gives the sixth-place Blades 34 points thanks to a 16-16-2-0 record, and moves them to within three points of the fifth-place Mooretown Flags.
The Blades have played 34 games, one less than the Flags, and are now six points up on the seventh-place Wheatley Sharks who lost 7-0 to the Lakeshore Canadiens Wednesday.
Wheatley has seven games left to the Blades six with the two teams meeting in the Stobbs Division outdoor game Saturday at 5 p.m. at Lanspeary Park in Windsor.
Friday night the Blades will travel to Dresden to take on the second-place Kings at 7:30.
Symons scored twice in the first period, and once in the third, to give him 18 goals on the second, and second place in team goal scoring individual stats – one ahead of Kier Cumming and three behind leader Dede Cato who has 21.
Symons was then ejected from the game with seven and a half minutes to play when he took exception to a knee-on-knee hit delivered by Wyatt Renders on Symons linemate Will Tetzlaff. Symons went after Renders and both were ejected for fighting and got one-game suspensions, with Symons having an extra game tagged on for been declared the instigator in the fight.
Cumming had the other Blades goal, his 17th, with one second left in the second period.
Drew Marlatt and Tetzlaff had two assists each on the night, with single helpers going to Noah Tetrault, Malcolm Campbell, Connor Wright, Keegan MacVoy, Colton Shoemaker and Cato.
The Lakers lone goal was scored by Cody Nicolaisen in the second period.
BLADES BITS: Tyler Letchford was in goal for the Blades and picked up his fourth win to go with four loses…Marlatt continues to lead the league in assists and now has 38...The Blades scored three powerplay goals on eight chances, while the Lakers managed none despite seven opportunities…Official shots on goal were 25 to 23 for the Lakers, however anyone who believes those totals also will be expecting to see the Easter Bunny in a couple of months…Campbell returned to the lineup after missing an extended period because of a broken wrist…Sebastian Stubberfield continued to sit out with lower body injury and Chase Henry wasn’t there because of an illness…Following the game the Blades released defenceman Bailey Norman, and will now resign veteran defenceman Steven Funk, who has been out for several weeks with a lower body injury…Rookie goalie Sean McNally, who has not played a game in over three months because of a high ankle sprain, has been sent by the Blades to the Kent AA Major Midgets so he can get some work…He will be available to AP to the Blades…The Lakers are now 0-29-0-2 on the season and have not won a game in over a calendar year…In the process they have been outscored in their 31 starts this season 166 to 39.
