So begins the second season — the one that counts.

The Wellington Dukes failed by the slimmest of margins to finish in the top spot in the East Division regular season, finishing tied in points with the Bowmanville Eagles but with fewer straight-up wins. The consolation prize is the right to play the Whitby Fury in the first round of playoffs.

The Dukes won the regular season series against Whitby three game to one. But the Fury’s lone win came just a few weeks ago in Wellington — as the team was mired in a slump. It is likely this memory the Whitby squad will bring as they enter the DukeDome on Friday night.

The Fury bring a potent offense that will have to be managed carefully.

“They’ve got a lot of offence,” said Marty Abrams, Dukes Coach and General Manager, “a lot of firepower. They look for the long breakaway pass — they look for turnovers. We have to play defensively and shut down key guys like (Tyler) Law and (Behn) Robertson.”

Specifically Abrams insists his team stays out of the penalty box. Indeed, in three power play opportunities in the last game between these teams, the Fury scored twice.

“If we get into penalty trouble their offence could hurt us,” said Abrams. “This series is going to come down to containing their offence.”

Whitby’s weakness, however, is in the back-end.

Jordan Tanner was the number one netminder for the Fury most of the season, but the team has lost the last five games in which Tanner was between the pipes. Joe Torrenueva was in net when Whitby sneaked by Wellington a few weeks ago — but Torreneuva struggles with a goals-against average of 4.65 and stops just 87 per cent of the shots he faces.

The Fury netminders don’t always benefit from strong support from their defence either — no current Whitby blueliner owns a positive plus-minus record. Their most productive, in terms of points, is Zack McDonald with a minus-10. By contrast David Pratt and Pat McEachen are plus-19 and plus-14 respectively. Though by no means, a perfect predictor of success, the wide gap in defensive corps performance points to a short series.

NEW FACES ON THE PENALTY KILL

In recent weeks Abrams has been tapping different shoulders to send out on the power play. Jeremy Franklin, Sean Rudy and Adam Zamec have typically logged a lot of icetime- killing penalties this season. But lately players like Scott Simmonds, Jared Saunders and Jeff Carroll are getting time on the special team-joining PK workhorses Cam Yuill and Mitch Rosborough.

So far the tactic has worked — the Dukes have maintained a strong 85 per cent PK rate. Abrams is likely to continue to use these special forces into the playoffs — at least into the initial rounds, or if there is a spike in power play success against the team.

“We’ve been working other guys into the penalty killing role — taking some pressure off Franklin and Zamec. It eats up a lot of ice time. We need to keep our offensive weapons fresh for five-man or man-advantage situations.”

ANOTHER RECORD

When Jeremy Franklin swatted down the Pickering Panther defenceman’s pass while killing a power play in overtime, then skating down the ice and scoring (though he would require three whacks at the stubborn puck before it would cross the line), the Dukes won more than an exciting game.

With the victory on Friday in Pickering, the Dukes extended their record for 30 or more wins in the regular season to 11 consecutive years, starting with the 1999-2000 season, according to the Dukes chief statistician David Brown. No other franchise in Junior A hockey in Ontario has enjoyed this consistent track record of success. During the same time frame, the Pickering Panthers have enjoyed just one 30-win season.

WELLINGTON 5 – TORONTO JUNIOR CANADIENS 2

With little at stake in the final game of the season (a Bowmanville win on Friday sealed their lock on first place) the Dukes rested key players including Franklin, Pratt and Zamec. Patrick McEachen might have rested as well, but since it was birthday on Sunday, he was keen to play.

He probably should have celebrated another way. For early in the game the talented defenceman inexplicably coughed up the puck behind his own net. Seconds later it was in the net.

But that was perhaps the lone dark spot in an otherwise strong effort by the Dukes against a team that clearly had something to prove.

Jeff Stanton led the way with a pair of goals in the game and defenceman Curtis Leonard earned a pair of assists as the Dukes defeated the Junior Canadiens 5-2. Also scoring for the Dukes was Brandon Mcintosh (his second of the season) and Jared Saunders. Mitch Rosborough threaded a needle by tossing the puck from mid-ice along the boards through traffic and finding an empty net to seal the win.

“I thought it was an outstanding performance from every single player,” said Abrams. “We had a lot of energy through to the end of the game. And I thought we played one of our most physical games of the season.”

SIDELINED

Kyle Hawkins-Schulz was forced to leave the game after suffering a shoulder injury on Sunday. It has been a tough go for the 20-year-old, since he returned to the Dukes lineup last month. A knee injury kept him out of the lineup for several weeks. Now he is out indefinitely as his shoulder mends.

“It’s been bad luck after bad luck for him since he got back” said Abrams. “He has been real good at killing penalties and his leadership in the dressing room makes him a tremendous asset to our team. It was sickening to see him leave the ice on Sunday.”