Swagger returns

Dukes winning streak restoring confidence

Dukes forward Brian Bunnett attacks the net with a scoring chance during play Friday night against the Villanova Knights.

After a brief early November wobble, the Wellington Dukes appear to be regaining their swagger bit by bit, putting together a tidy little three-game winning streak over the last 10 days.

It hasn’t always been pretty these games without Jordan Ruby in net, but the Dukes are battling hard—scoring when they need to and barring the door when their opponents turn up the heat.

Ryan McDonald has been minding nets since the end of October. He emerges from this six-game stint with a respectable 4-2 record. He and his fellow teammates, however, will welcome back number one netminder Jordan Ruby this week, fresh from his silver medal win in the World Junior
‘A’ Championship in Penticton, B.C..

Ruby played every minute of Team Canada East’s five games in the tournament, including the gold medal game—a game they lost to the U.S. on Sunday. For some observers Ruby was best player on Team Canada East, nearly carrying them to gold medal victory.

Ruby is expected to be back in net for the Dukes on Thursday as the Dukes take on the Whitby Fury.

And while we are talking about welcomes, the Dukes are hoping to welcome Jan Kaminsky back from the Belleville Bulls this week. Kaminsky spent the past season and a bit with the Bulls but struggled to make the lineup on a consistent basis. As a result he never produced the numbers that were expected of the fleet-of-foot right-shooting forward. The Georgia native is very familiar with the Dukes organization— he spent most of training camp last year in Wellington. Kaminsky played minor hockey in Thunder Bay under his father and former New York Islander Yan Kaminsky.

VANQUISHING THE KNIGHTS

The Dukes rolled into the arena at York University on Friday night. The Olympic-sized ice pad provided plenty of room for the Dukes to manoeuvre and wheel. Yet after the first period the Dukes had just one goal—a perfectly executed give-and-go by Darcy Greenaway—against Villanova. It should have been more.

In the second period it was a different Dukes team that emerged from the dressing room. For its part Villanova is equipped with some equally quick skaters who know their rink.

The Knights tied the score in the second. The Dukes emerged in the third with more grit.

Just over a minute later Brian Bunnett scored, picking up a loose puck in a scramble around the Villanova net, restoring the Dukes lead.

Villanova came close to tying the score—one shot ringing the post behind McDonald—but the Dukes managed to fend off the Knight attack long enough to take home the win.

GROUNDING THE GOLDEN HAWKS

A week ago the Dukes travelled to Trenton and limped home with a 4-2 loss. The Dukes weren’t going to drop a second game—not in the DukeDome. Darcy Greenaway tallied first, finding the puck in a crush around the Trenton net and scoring his first of two that night. Trenton tied the score as Joe Davies tapped in an errant rebound a couple moments later.

Darcy Murphy gets tangled with a Trenton Golden Hawks player during play on Sunday at the DukeDome.

Greenaway restored the lead with a wrist shot that found daylight between the Trenton netminder’s pads and the near post. Zack Jones added another late in the first to widen the Dukes’ lead. Brian Bunnett extended the lead, tapping in a nifty cross-crease pass from Simon Bessette.

In the third Trenton’s Joel Senecal scored on the power play on a shot that simply went through McDonald.

Then Jeff Stanton, who was flying all night long, skated through most of the Golden Hawks team, then across the slot, firing a laser through traffic across the goalie and into the net. Stanton earned three points on the night as the Dukes defeated Trenton 5-2.

The Golden Hawks played without Brad Gehl and Jeremie Gauthier in the lineup—two of their three top point-getters— due to injury. Trenton’s most experienced defenceman is also sidelined due to injury.

UP NEXT: VAUGHAN

On Friday night the Dukes host the Vaughan Vipers—a team that resembles the Dukes in many ways—fast, skilled and disciplined.

Vaughan currently sits fourth in the South Division but just a point behind the second-place Knights.

The Dukes like playing the South—they have picked up 23 of 24 possible points in games against South Division teams so far this season, according to Dukes stats master David Brown. The going has been tougher in the East,where the Dukes have picked up 12 of 20 possible points.