Sharks Take a Bite Out of Blenheim
The Wheatley Sharks, now sitting in 7th place in the Provincial Junior Hockey League Stobbs Division, seem to have the Blenheim Blades’ number.
Earlier this season the Blades traveled to Wheatley and blew a 4-1 third period lead and came home with a 4-4 tie.
Thursday night the Sharks swam into the Blenheim arena and then swam home with a 5-3 victory over the Blades who, for the most part, didn’t seem all that interested in being there on “High School Student Night”.
The loss, just the Blades third in 15 starts, leaves the club in first place with a 10-3-2 record good for 22 points, and a six point edge on the Mooretown Flags who beat the Petrolia Flyers 5-3 Thursday night in Petrolia.
The Blades will try to maintain that six-point lead when they go to Mooretown Saturday night for a 7:30 game before returning home Sunday to play the Essex 73’s at 7 p.m.
Wheatley, who came into the game missing several players because of injuries and exams, skated hard the entire night and gained full marks to the victory.
The Sharks took a 1-0 lead at 11:45 of the first period thanks to a goal by Mitchell Prudence, and that stood up until 14:49 of the second frame when Bryce Broad netted his fifth goal of the year to tie things with assists going to Brayden Hopkins and George Wood.
Then, with just 20 seconds to play in the period, Hopkins put the Blades up 2-1 with his 10th tally assisted by Zach Horvath and Nick Delyzer.
However the speedy Sharks weren’t to be denied and in the space of just over six minutes in the third period scored three times on Blades rookie goalie Adam Craven to get the win.
Eric Prudence made it 2-2 at 9:45 and Delaney MacDonald gave Wheatley the lead at 14:07.
Blades defenceman Chris Hall then took a kneeing penalty at 14:33, and exactly a minute later Curtis Rodriques’ powerplay goal proved to be the eventual winner.
A tripping penalty to Wheatley’s Ryan Zsebo at 16:29 gave the Blades some hope when they got a powerplay goal from Delyzer, his 12th score of the season, at 16:53 with assists going to Hopkins and Horvath.
That hope was dashed when Mitchell Prudence iced the Wheatley victory with an empty net goal with 1:18 to play.
On the night the Blades outshot the Sharks 25-21 with each team taking four minor penalties.
Attendance was just 275, by far the lowest of the season.
BLADES BITS: The Blades were also playing short players with forward Kier Cumming and defenceman Patrick Wright out of the lineup…Cumming was sitting out the second game of a two-game suspension and Wright had an exam…On September 25 members of Farm Credit Canada were on hand to hand out grocery bags so that fans could fill them with non-perishable items and return them at the Oct. 2 game…The Blades received a card in the mail this week from FCC thanking the team for their participation once again in the food drive and noted that the items collected produced 347 meals for the Blenheim Food Bank…The team will be holding a Quarter Auction Friday, Nov. 4 at the Blenheim Legion…Tickets are available in the lobby during home games…The Blades Alumni will be hosting a “Steak Night” Monday, Nov. 7 at the Blenheim Legion…The cost is $15 and tickets are available in the lobby at home games or by calling Dave at 519-676-2022, Ryan at 519-359-6514 or Lee at 519-676-5204.