Blades drop pair in semi-finals

ESPANOLA, ON – The Hilltop Variety Blades Bantam AAA hockey team dropped a pair of games here Saturday to the league leading Anmar Sudbury Wolves as they opened the best-of-five NOBHL semifinal series.

In game one the Wolves held the Blades scoreless enroute to a 6-0 win. The Blades pressed early but could not beat Wolves goalie Joel Horodziejczyk. Sudbury led 1-0 after one on a goal from Josh Moore. Two more tallies in the second off the sticks of Tyler Bertuzzi and Michael Laidley put the Wolves up 3-0 after two periods. Moore completed his hatrick in the third period and Laidley added his second to round out the scoring.

Game two saw the Blades get off to a quick start as Stephen Leveque was set up by Matt Salter and Tyler Peters to make it 1-0 twenty one seconds into the opening frame. Courtney Geisler got the helper on Jake Staples goal mid way through the first to give the Blades a 2-0 lead. Scott Sirkka countered for the Wolves before the end of the first.

Ryan Wilkinson went D to D with Cole Filiatrault and Stephen Leveque tipped in the point shot to give the Blades a 3-1 advantage with under five minutes remaining in the second period. Sudbury’s Charlie Venedam narrowed the gap two minutes later and the Blades held a 3-2 lead after two periods.

Michael Laidley evened the count six minutes into the third period. The Wolves pulled out the victory with a powerplay goal by Ryan Erickson with 6:46 remaining in the third period to make the final score 4-3.

Blades goalie Anthony Scappatura was solid in net for both games.

The series returns to West Ferris arena for games three and four with a game three face-off taking place Saturday, February 27th beginning at 11:00 a.m.

In other semifinal weekend action Nickel City split a pair of games with the Soo Thunder.

Submitted to BayToday.ca