Bruised

Netminder Olivier Lafreniere won the game for the Dukes on Friday night.

Lafreniere shines as Dukes muddle through short-handed games

It gets harder from here. The Wellington Dukes, with nine games remaining in the regular season schedule, enjoy all but two of these matches at home. But each one—barring Sunday’s afternoon game with Lindsay—is against a bona fide contender. Markham twice more. Trenton. Aurora. Even Stouffville, Newmarket and Whitby have designs on a post-season run.

So this past weekend’s performance must give them pause. It wasn’t a terrible weekend—two points of four—but combined with the lacklustre performance a week earlier, the Dukes’ swagger has faded. A team needs that swagger—the unassailable confidence that winning teams have heading into the playoffs. Injuries and suspensions tend to erode that swagger.

Two 20-year-old defencemen, AJ Klein and Jacob Hetherington, remain on the sidelines. Two-way forward Colin Doyle nurses a broken ankle. Several forwards are sporting full face shields as face and mouth injuries heal.

Winning teams, however, find ways of rising above the challenges.

Certainly, Olivier Lafreniere gives his team a chance to win every time he’s in the Dukes net. This is not to take anything away from Sam Tanguay or Anthony Popovich, but Lafreniere has single-handedly won games for the Dukes in recent weeks.

DUKES 5 – NEWMARKET 2
Such was the case on Friday night as the Dukes hosted Newmarket. Through the first period, the Hurricanes took the game to the Dukes—more shots and better scoring opportunities.

Even when the Dukes opened up a two-goal lead—Ben Sokay from Luc Brown on the power play and another from Jacob Panetta on an inspiring rush through the neutral zone—Wellington failed to take command of the game.

So Newmarket took over. The Hurricanes returned with two goals, tying the game early in the third. Brown and Sokay connected again shortly thereafter to restore the Dukes’ thin, one-goal lead. But few in the Wellington arena were convinced. Nails were bitten. Even the cymbals man—attired this Friday night as Batman—sat nervously with his metal discs at his feet.

When Newmarket pulled its netminder, the tension was tightened a few more notches. It wasn’t long, fortunately, before Chase St. Aubin broke up the Newmarket attack in the neutral zone. He dished the puck ahead to linemate Nic Mucci. Ever precise, Mucci lined up the shot and released the puck. Dead centre into the empty net. Sokay scored another empty-net goal before the buzzer sounded, ending the game.

Brown and Sokay combined on three of the five goals scored by the Dukes in the game.

Jacob Panetta had skated out of frame by the time his second-period goal whistles past the Newmarket goalie.

But the hero was Lafreniere. He stopped 31 shots— many of them very good scoring chances. After they scored their second goal to tie the game, the Hurricanes believed they might upset the Dukes at home. Belief is a powerful motivator.

It was Lafreniere, however, who convinced the Newmarket shooters that this was simply out of reach.

MARKHAM 3 – DUKES 1
On Sunday, the Dukes visited Markham. From the opening faceoff the Dukes were battling on their heels. The Dukes managed just 28 shots in the game. The Royals , meanwhile, pummelled Tanguay with 40.

Yet Tanguay and the Dukes managed to hang on—at least when playing even strength. It was the Dukes second penalty of the first period that would prove costly. With Tyler Burnie in the box for slashing late in the first, and Panetta sitting beside him for roughing, the Royals scored, taking a one-goal lead.

Later in the second period, Mucci was penalized for hooking. The Dukes nearly escaped that infraction unharmed. But with 13 seconds remaining before Mucci returned to the ice, Markham scored their second goal.

Late in the third, the Royals ran into their own penalty woes. The Dukes capitalized as Sokay scored from Brown and Panetta.

The Dukes pulled Tanguay for another forward. It didn’t work. Markham gathered up the loose puck and scored in the Dukes’ empty net.

UP NEXT: NEWMARKET, MARKHAM AND LINDSAY
On Thursday night, the Dukes head up to Newmarket with the goal of coming home with a more emphatic win against the Hurricanes.

On Friday night, the Dukes host Markham looking for a better outcome than Sunday’s match. This game will mark the return of Marco Azzano and Trevor Abbot to Wellington. Azzano skated last season alongside Brown.

Then on Sunday afternoon, the Dukes welcome the Lindsay Muskies. Lindsay is playing for pride now— their playoff hopes have been extinguished. But this potentially makes them more dangerous. The Muskies surprised Cobourg last Friday night, downing the unprepared Cougars 7-3.

Note that the game time has changed. The puck drops on Sunday at 2 p.m.