(Photo courtesy of morguefile.com)(Photo courtesy of morguefile.com)
Chatham

Jr. Hockey Wrap Up - January 8, 2017

Dillon Liberty scored his 40th goal of the season, but the Dresden Kings lost to the Blenheim Blades 5-2 Sunday night at Blenheim Memorial Arena.

The Blades are in fourth place in the GOJHL Western Conference with the win, at 38 points. The Kings are in sixth place with 31 points.

Liberty's milestone goal was the first one scored by either side, coming at 17:56 in the opening period.  The Blades then exploded with four goals in the second period.  The first two came off the stick of Keir Cumming.  The first was on the power play at 1:20, the second an unassisted goal at 5:44.  Michael Vanek made it 3-1 Blades just after the halfway mark of the period and Zach Horvath extended the Blenheim lead at 14:34.   Dresden got a goal back before the second intermission on a short-handed unassisted effort.

Nick Delyzer picked up Blenheim's fifth and final goal of the night as the only goal in the third period.

Eric Stewardson stopped 25 out of 27 shots in goal for Blenheim, who travels to Wheatley Monday night.  Dresden's next game is Friday when they host Mooretown.

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Michael Vieira scored twice as the Essex 73s beat the Amherstburg Integrity Admirals 7-4 at the Libro Centre Sunday.

The 73s maintain their lead in the Western Conference standings with 51 points.  Amherstburg sits in third with 46 points.

Vieira's first goal would set the stage for what would be a back-and-forth affair until the middle of the third period, coming at 2:41 in the opening period.  The Admirals tied it up at 8:08 on a power play goal from Ryan Alexander, only to have Essex take the lead back 54 seconds later when Blake McConville found the net.

The 73s got a two-goal lead on the power play at 11:38 in the second period from Tyler Boughner.  Amherstburg responded three minutes later with an extra-man goal of their own from Dean Patterson.

The Admirals tied the game up again when Caleb Paquette lit the lamp at 1:50 in the third frame.  A minute and 14 seconds later, the 73s responded again with an unassisted goal from William Stadder.  Patterson connected again for Amherstburg with another equalizer at 6:23.  From there, it was all Essex, as goals would be scored by Vieira, Brett Smith and Tyler Scott.

Jax Dhont was the winning goalie for Essex, facing just 17 Admirals shots and stopping 13 of them.  Catalin Morin knocked away 34 of Essex's 40 shots for the Admirals.

The 73s host the Mooretown Flags Tuesday night while Amherstburg is off until next Sunday, when they welcome Wheatley.

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