Admirals beat Wallaceburg for third victory in their last four games

By Ron Giofu

The Amherstburg Admirals have won three of their last four games with the most recent game being a 7-4 win Sunday night.

The Admirals downed the visiting Wallaceburg Thunderhawks at the Libro Centre for their thirteenth win of the 2022-23 PJHL Stobbs Division season. The Thunderhawks got off to a fast 2-0 start Sunday night thanks to powerplay goals from former Admiral Colton Candido and Nelson Dekoning. Chris Bolton got the home team on the board before the opening 20 minutes expired.

The Admirals took a 3-2 win into the second intermission with Connor Demelo scoring shorthanded followed by Kyle Bleau’s first of two goals on the night. A powerplay goal by Wallaceburg’s Josh Remsik 33 seconds into the third period tied the game but Mitchell Demelo, Allan Djordjevic and

Braeden Burke scored to make it a 6-3 game.

Trevor Pike cut it to 6-4 with a goal for Wallaceburg but Bleau’s second of the game, this one into an empty net, sealed the deal for the Admirals.

“We started off slow but we rebounded,” said Admirals interim co-coach Mark Turner. “We got away from our game today and took some bad penalties. We weren’t ready to play in the first period. The kids bounced back, worked together and got the win.”

Turner said the coaches, including interim co-coach Marc Crevier and assistant Cody Schneider, are trying to teach the players that bad penalties at playoff time will be costly. The Admirals were resilient Sunday night, Turner added.

The Admirals played last Friday night in Lakeshore and lost 8-2 in a game where Owen Papulkas and Burke scored the Amherstburg goals. Turner said they quickly put that game behind them.

“You can’t dwell on it,” he said, noting they have to adapt quickly and move forward at playoff time.

After beating the last place Thunderhawks, the Admirals were in Essex Tuesday night against the first place 73’s. Turner said he was looking forward to the challenge to see where the Admirals stood as a team.

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