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The Ontario Hockey League has dished out another heavy suspension to a Boulton.
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London Knights forward Ryder Boulton was suspended eight games Thursday in part for a slashing major against Saginaw star defenceman Zayne Parekh with 6:36 left in the third period on Nov. 23 in Michigan. The league initially sat the 18-year-old indefinitely pending a review and issued its decision hours before the Knights put their 15-game win streak on the line against the last-place Peterborough Petes on the road.
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Parekh, the reigning OHL defenceman of the year, didn’t suffer an injury on the play and, in fact, was instrumental in the Spirit’s late rally after Boulton’s ejection. Saginaw’s three-goal push ultimately fell flat in a 6-5 London win.
The OHL’s department of player safety decided four games was for the “reckless” slash itself and four more were for “Boulton’s recent and relevant history of on-ice conduct that has come under review” by the league.
Boulton, a Huntington, N.Y., native, has been instructed to meet with the OHL’s department of player safety before the conclusion of his suspension. He previously was suspended two games for a check to the head Nov. 8 at home against North Bay and was assessed a two-gamer for being the aggressor in a fight against Barrie Oct. 11.
Boulton’s older brother Sawyer, now in the Philadelphia Flyers organization, was oft-suspended last year while with the Knights. He sat for 10 games for an elbow to the head of Londoner Bryce McConnell-Barker, then the Soo Greyhounds captain, last December and racked up a handful of smaller bans, including a one-gamer for a warmup violation during the Memorial Cup in Saginaw in late May.
Ryder Boulton, who has one goal and 34 penalty minutes in 14 games, is eligible to return Dec. 15 at home against the Kitchener Rangers.
The Boulton brothers’ father Eric, a former NHLer, played junior hockey with a Sarnia Sting team coached by Mark Hunter, now London’s GM.
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