Where there’s a will

Shaw Boomhower propels himself forward with two Trenton defenders draped over him. He then redirected the puck past the Trenton netminder for the Dukes’ first goal on Friday night before a crowd estimated near 1,000.

Dukes win big game, fade in lesser match

David Brown has a good head for numbers. It’s a talent more associated with baseball, but numbers offer a telling insight into most sporting stories, including hockey. On a scrap of paper, the Dukes’ stats guy has encapsulated the Wellington Dukes’ season in two rows of numbers.

The first row showed the Dukes’ win-loss record through the team’s first 20 games in the 2015/16 season. Ten wins and 10 losses. An even .500 winning percentage. The second row showed the Dukes’ record over the next 20 games—14 wins, three losses, two ties and one overtime loss—for a .775 winning percentage.

That scrap of paper says a great deal about the Dukes’ season. It says the team is young. It took a while for lines to gel. To learn structure. To meet expectations. To find discipline.

It also tells you about key additions— Nicolas Mucci (F), Dylan Mascarin (F), the return of Justin Bean (D) and Olivier Lafreniere (G), along with the sudden emergence of Tyler Burnie as a playmaker and finisher. And more recently, the addition of Matt Adams (F) and Greg Smith (F). Each has made a powerful and immediate impact in the Dukes’ lineup.

With the wins has come confidence— the knowledge that on any given night, they can beat any team they face.

So far, the will has been uneven. Perhaps the final 11 games of the season will see a strenghtening of Dukes’ resolve.

DUKES 3 – TRENTON 1
Just two weeks earlier, the Dukes eked out a 4-3 overtime win in Trenton. But even that outcome flattered the Golden Hawks, for the Dukes dominated the OJHL leader through two periods in that game. An embarrassed Trenton squad mustered some offence in the third period, forcing overtime when Luc Brown sealed the win for Wellington.

With the taste of that loss still in their mouths— only the Hawks’ third loss of the season—they came to Wellington on Friday looking to set things right. The Essroc Arena was humming with likely close to 1,000 fans from both Wellington, Trenton and points in between.

But it was evident from the very first shift—the Dukes wanted it more. They wanted the puck. They wanted to finish checks. To put pressure on the backcheck.

After the first period, the shots were even—but the Dukes had had the better chances. Neither team had managed to score.

That changed early in the second period—in a dramatic way.

The Dukes’ Shaw Boomhower broke into the Trenton zone in the middle of the ice. Pushing the puck ahead, he attempted to power his way through the two defenders draped over him. But Boomhower wanted it more. Sprawling forward, Boomhower, prone on the ice, deftly thrust his stick ahead, changing the direction of the puck just enough to elude the Trenton netminder.

It was a remarkable goal. A textbook illustration of why you don’t let up until the whistle blows.

Justin Bean braces himself to block a slapshot from Trenton forward Hunter Fargey.

Then the Dukes caught a break—a twoman advantage for about 90 seconds. But the Wellington power play didn’t click. Yet the pressure the Dukes were able to mount in the Trenton end paid dividends. Just as their penalized player joined the action on the ice, Luc Brown tapped a high rebound into the top corner, giving his team a two-goal lead.

Then it was the Dukes’ turn in the penalty box. Boomhower was tagged for a head check, a five-minute major penalty. Two game suspension. It was just over the midway point in the game—still plenty of time for a Trenton comeback.

But Dylan Mascarin spoiled the Hawks’ plan. Breaking up a pass in the neutral zone, the Dukes’ talented forward broke in on net with five Trenton players in pursuit. Mascarin rifled a shot from close range for a short-handed goal. The Dukes escaped the long major penalty and the period with a 3-0 lead.

Trenton wasn’t letting up. Olivier Lafreniere was spectacular and it looked as though he might shut out the Trenton shooters for the first time this season.

But the Dukes couldn’t kill yet another long penalty in the third period. Despite missing plenty of stickwork by the Hawks—including two ugly attacks on Mascarin and Panetta—the officiating crew decided to punish Dukes defenceman Jake Falcao with a four-minute penalty for high sticking.

The Dukes very nearly preserved the shut-out. But with just a minute left in the penalty, Trenton scored on a scramble in Lafreniere’s crease.

The Dukes skated the rest of the way to victory, earning the loud and enthusiastic cheers of appreciation from the hometown crowd.

WHITBY 5 – DUKES 2
The game wasn’t as inspiring on Sunday afternoon in Whitby. In fairness, there were big holes in the Dukes’ lineup. Mascarin was nursing a bad cut he received from a high stick against Trenton on Friday. Boomhower was serving the first of a twogame suspension. Colin Doyle is still sidelined with a broken leg suffered in practice and Jacob Hetherington is also on the shelf with an injury.

So it was a battered and bruised Dukes team that made the trip to Whitby.

Things began badly as the Dukes were penalized a minute into the game. Whitby scored on the power play. Two minutes later, they widened the lead and the Dukes were on their heels.

But a few moments later, a Whitby player was tagged for a cross check. Brown scored.

Then came the sign this would not be the Dukes’ game. As the Fury crashed the net, the loose puck slid harmlessly toward netminder Sam Tanguay. Yet, inexplicably, the puck continued to slide slowly past him into the net. It was equal parts dispiriting and bizarre.

Midway through the second, Matt Adams scored (his third goal and ninth point in seven games since joining the Dukes) on the power play, narrowing the Whitby lead to a goal.

For the first time in the game, the momentum appeared to be shifting in the Dukes’ favour. But hope was extinguished just 23 seconds into the third as Ryan Taylor scored his third goal in the game.

With over two minutes remaining, Dukes coach and GM Marty Abrams wasn’t conceding anything. He pulled his netminder—Anthony Popovich replacing Tanguay after the second period. The Dukes earned some good chances but just couldn’t finish.

With a minute left in the game, the Whitby goalie was tagged with delay of game. A penalty shot followed. It was the same call made a week earlier against the Dukes with one second to go in the game against Whitby.

Ben Sokay never got the shot away. The puck dribbled away harmlessly into the corner.

Whitby tallied an empty-net goal a minute later.

The Dukes would have a week of practice to shake off this loss.

UP NEXT: NEWMARKET AND MARKHAM
Newmarket clings to third place in the North Division on the strength of three straight wins since losing to Wellington on January 16. The Newmarket Hurricanes visit Wellington on Friday night.

On Sunday, the Dukes travel to Markham for only their second match against the newly reconstituted Royals. In October, Wellington fell to Markham 4-3. Former Dukes Marco Azzano and Trevor Abbot figured prominently in the Royals’ win.

But that was then.

This meeting is the first of three games between Markham and Wellington in the Dukes’ final homestretch of 10 games.

How they perform against the Royals will likely have an influence on where the Dukes finish in the East Division standings.