Jacob Hetherington has shouldered much of the workload as the Dukes have rotated mostly four defencemen in their last four games.

Dukes win two, get picked apart by Cobourg

It couldn’t last. It was too tall an order— too many games against tough opponents with just four defencemen and a rarely used call-up. The Dukes kept Oakville close a week ago, but lost by a goal. Then they went to Kingston and shut out the Voyageurs. The next night, they trailed Toronto Lakeshore most of the game, but Will Cook’s overtime goal gave the Dukes the improbable win at home. Then, after a couple days’ rest, it was off to Cobourg—rarely a good rink for Wellington. They haven’t won a game there since March. It wasn’t pretty.

The Dukes actually outshot the Cougars 38-33. But Cobourg withstood the pressure and seized their chances. And when they did, they scored. Two goals in the first. Two more in the second and three in the third. 7-0 final.

Perhaps worse than the outcome: captain Joe McKeown was lured into a scrap with Cougar fourth-line grinder Austin Veleke. The skirmish will cost the Dukes their captain’s services for two games.

The Wellington Dukes still have two games ahead without defencemen Jacob Panetta and Brody Morris. Nor will they have sniper Abbott Girduckis when the Dukes face the Golden Hawks in Trenton on Friday, and at home against Kingston on Sunday. All three are participating in the World Junior A Challenge in Kindersley, Saskatchewan this week.

These three, plus the loss of McKeown take a big chunk out of the Dukes’ lineup— when they could sorely use the help.

DUKES 2 – KINGSTON 0
The Dukes travelled to Kingston without Panetta, Morris and Girdiuckis on Thursday. The Voyageurs were without their top two scorers, Adam Brady and Alex Tonge.

Kingston would miss their skaters more

After a scoreless first period, Ben Sokay scored on a rush, engineered by Dukes’ blueliner Andrew Coupland. Coupland figured in the Dukes’ second goal, assisting on a power play goal by Marco Azzano.

Rookie netminder Olivier Lafrenière earned the shutout.

Wes St. Amand is looking stronger with each game and earning more ice time.

DUKES 5 – TORONTO LAKESHORE 4
After giving up a goal late in the first period, the Dukes tied the game on the power play with an athletic wrap-around goal by Cook. Another Toronto goal followed. Then Jacob Hetherington buried his shot from the point through some traffic. But before the second period was done, Toronto scored again.

Trailing by a goal, and with time running out in the second period, the Dukes amped up the pressure—closing in tighter on net. First, McKeown snapped a shot that nearly beat the Toronto netminder. The rebound came back to Azzano’s stick. He fired, and was robbed by the Toronto netminder. But the puck squirted loose. Nick Devito scooped it up—patiently examined the situation, decided where he was going to put the puck, manoeuvred into position and fired. It all seemed to happen in Matrix slow motion. The Dukes had tied the game for the third time.

But midway through the final period, Toronto took the lead back again.

With time running out, Devito connected with Azzano to tie the game a fourth time.

In overtime, the first five minutes of fouron- four hockey solved nothing. Then, with time dwindling in the second and final overtime— this frame distinguished by three-onthree hockey—McKeown scooped up the loose puck and confidently headed out of his zone. He hit linemate Cook with a long lead pass. Cook streaked down the wing with one lone defender to beat. Almost at the net, Cook whistled the puck top corner.

Lafrenière came away with his second win in net in two games.

PLAYER TO WATCH
After winning the player of the month honours for November, Azzano is making a bid for December too.

He has earned at least a point in all but one of his last 18 games—in this run, he has scored 14 goals and assisted on 13 others.

UP NEXT: TRENTON AND KINGSTON
The Dukes visit Trenton on Friday night. The Golden Hawks have cooled their torrid pace of September and October, but remain a powerful team—with plenty of offensive weapons and lots of vocal encouragement from their coach.

The Dukes welcome Kingston to Wellington for a rare Sunday afternoon game at the Essroc Centre. The Dukes will be looking for a reprise of their win in Kingston last week.

THIS DAY IN DUKES HISTORY

December 10, 2010

Has it really been four years since the Wellington Dukes played their last game at the old Duke Dome on Niles Street? The opponent that night was the Cobourg Cougars and their coach just happened to be former Duke coach Wayne Marchment.

The arena had one of the biggest crowds ever, as fans wanted to say goodbye to a place that held a lot of memories for both young and old. The two teams would proceed to put on a great farewell. Through two periods of play, the game was scoreless. In fact, the first goal wasn’t scored until there were just six minutes left in regulation time, when the Cougars scored.

The final two minutes were hectic, as the Dukes tried to tie up the game and caused a Cougar player to take a tripping call. The Dukes pulled their goalie to make it a six on four advantage. Captain Sean Rudy scored the equalizer with assists going to Joe Zarbo and Brendan Barletta with just 30 seconds left in the period. The roar from the crowd was very loud, but would get even louder soon.

Five minutes of overtime decided nothing so the game went to a shootout. The first five shooters were denied as Dukes goalie Jordan Ruby stoned each Cougar. The final shooter was Dukes’ Steve Evans, who went five-hole on the Cougars goalie to send the fans home with a final great memory of the old Duke Dome.

What could the new Duke Dome do to top this? Stay tuned for the story of the first game in the new digs.