The Dukes celebrate Nick DeVito’s second period goal, tying the game against Cobourg at one goal apiece on Friday night. The Dukes went on to win the game 3-2 in overtime.

Dukes ready to face Trenton in the first round of OJHL playoffs

Few are giving the Wellington Dukes much of a chance against the Trenton Golden Hawks as the teams prepare for a best-of-seven playoff series starting this Friday in Trenton. But then nearly everyone willing to make a prediction is also allowing that, of all the playoff series getting underway this week, the Wellington-Trenton match up may be the one most likely to result in an upset.

That is because the Dukes are playing better since the middle of January than they’ve played all season. They are an offensive threat across four lines and, when their feet are moving, are one of the fastest and most skilled teams in the league.

But their opponent is Trenton. The Golden Hawks lost just 11 games all season, although two of those losses were delivered by the Dukes. Rugged forward Brady Wiffen led all goal scorers in the OJHL with 53. Wiffen and Zach de Concilys scored the second and third most points overall in the regular season. In net, Justin Kappelmeister allowed, on average, just 2.09 goals per game—good enough for fourth overall among OJHL goaltenders.

As David Brown illustrates in his playoff primer, the Golden Hawks are a much older team than the Dukes—all but six Trenton players are 19- or 20-year-olds. While icing an older team has helped the Golden Hawks in the regular season these past three years, it has not translated into success in the post-season. Trenton has not emerged from the second round of the playoffs in their current incarnation.

Playoff hockey requires finding an extra gear. It can be a challenge to keep players focused on the here and now—especially those with commitments to play elsewhere next season and one foot out the door.

The series begins in Trenton on Friday night and resumes in Wellington on Sunday afternoon. Should the series go seven games, the final three games will be played on successive nights Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

Nick DeVito finished the regular season strongly with seven points in three games last week.

DUKES 5 – KINGSTON 2
The Dukes finished the season in a strong way, mauling the Voyageurs in Kingston and eking out a thrilling overtime win over Cobourg before an enthusiastic hometown crowd.

In Kingston, Marco Azzano and Will Cook each potted a pair, while defenceman Jacob Hethrington notched his third goal of the season as the Dukes romped over a listless Kingston squad. Nick DeVito set up three of the goals and Olivier Lafrenière went the distance in the Dukes, net, turning away 20 shots.

The game was marred by an incident late in the third period in which the officials—and most of the crowd—heard the Kingston coach instruct his player to injure Dukes’ captain Joe McKeown. Colin Birkas was assessed a Travesty of the Game penalty—a fitting use of that term under the circumstances— and suspended for a pair of games.

Meanwhile, the Dukes’ Luc Brown was back in the lineup on Thursday after serving his suspension for returning a stray puck to the opposing team during the warm-up on Sunday—also considered a Travesty of the Game infraction.

DUKES 3 – COBOURG 2 OT
Abbott Girduckis slid the puck from the top of the faceoff circle to Cook, low on the red line with the time running out in the first overtime period. Cobourg’s skilled but slowfooted Connor Armour was in the penalty box for slashing the much faster Dukes’ captain.

Unmarked, Cook took a stride to the net and roofed a wrist shot over the Cobourg netminder’s shoulder, winning the game in overtime—a thrilling conclusion to a great game.

Both teams created scoring opportunities, but it wasn’t until the final two seconds in the first period that Cobourg’s Armour scored giving his team the lead. The Dukes drew even on the power play early in the second as DeVito redirected a Hethrington cannon shot from the blueline.

Three minutes into the third period, Brandon Kosik powered his way into the Cobourg zone—turned one way, then another before putting a pinpoint pass onto the stick of Josh Supryka heading to the net. Supryka made it count, and the Dukes had the lead for the first time in the game. Even though Cobourg was outshooting the Dukes, it seemed that the one-goal advantage might prevail. But in the waning minutes of the game the Cougars’ Ryan O’Grady scored to tie the match.

In overtime, however, it was the Dukes who emerged victorious. It didn’t mean anything in the standings—the Dukes had already secured a playoff spot—but it was important to end on a winning streak in front of the hometown crowd.

LINE UP
Chase St. Aubin has been cleared to rejoin the Dukes this week, after being sidelined by a virus since Christmas.

OJHL PLAYOFF PRIMER

By David Brown

The Wellington Dukes travel to Trenton to take on the Golden Hawks on Friday for Game 1 of their best-of-seven North/East Conference Quarterfinal playoff series. The last time a Wellington team played a Trenton team in the playoffs was 2007, when the Dukes defeated the Sting in the opening round. That year, Wellington went all the way to the OJHL Finals before losing to the Aurora Tigers, who were coached by current Trenton coach Jerome Dupont.

This year, Trenton had the second best record in the OJHL with a .787 winning percentage, while the Dukes finished with a .528. The Dukes did pick things up late in the season. Over their last 10 games they played .750 hockey.

The teams met five times in the regular season, with the Dukes winning the first two and the Golden Hawks winning the final three. Trenton had the second highest penalty minutes in the league with 1,007 while the Dukes had the least with 625.

Special teams see Trenton with a 22.5 per cent success rate on the power play (4th OJHL) and a 86.9 per cent penalty kill rate (3rd OJHL). They also led the league with 16 short-handed goals.

The Golden Hawks and the Dukes have a different style of recruiting as can be seen by the age-breakdown of players in the attached chart.

It’s been 26 seasons since the Dukes replaced the Bellville Bobcats in 1989, and Wellington fans have seen their team make the playoffs 26 consecutive years. Current Dukes’ head coach Marty Abrams has been at the helm for 14 of those years and has mentioned many times he hopes to see a large contingent of fans as he has seen how they can inspire his players.

Highway 33 is going to be a very busy road heading into March. Let the games begin.